The National Pension Service (NPS) issued an explanatory statement regarding the report by domestic media on Feb. 14, titled “NPS’ Overseas Alternative Investment Assets: Solely Trusting and Passing Verification to Asset Managers.”
On the same day, the media reported that the NPS is accepting the profit and loss evaluations conducted by entrusted asset managers, who directly invest in their overseas alternative assets, and incorporating them into the calculation of returns without internal evaluation guidelines for overseas alternative investment assets and separate verification procedures. This has raised concerns about the potential insufficiency of oversight regarding overseas alternative investments among domestic institutions. Additionally, there are worries that losses may not be accurately reflected within the NPS itself.
Moreover, the domestic alternative investment assets currently invested by the NPS undergo up to three reviews. First, the asset manager evaluates the asset value, which is then assessed by an external evaluator. If there is a significant discrepancy between the asset manager’s “self-assessment” and the external evaluation, an investment committee, including external experts, makes judgments based on internal guidelines.
However, in the case of overseas alternative investment assets, the media reported that without such procedures, the NPS reflects the valuation results of asset managers who receive funds from the NPS and manage them, directly. In this scenario, asset managers may optimistically underestimate the magnitude of losses, leading to the possibility of significant “unexpected” losses occurring on a large scale at the end of the investment period.
In response, the NPS stated that it reflects the returns of overseas alternative investment assets through the same evaluation procedures as major global pension funds such as CalPERS.
In particular, overseas entrusted asset managers are reported to conduct self-assessments by utilizing international evaluation standards, and obtain fair value evaluations from independent third parties. Additionally, they undergo verification by external accounting firms for further validation.