GSIS says US investment minimal but won't disclose how much

MANILA, Philippines – The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) reiterated yesterday that it has no investment in the embattled US firms Lehman Brothers and American International Group.

In a statement, lawyer Estrella Elamparo, GSIS spokeswoman, said the state pension fund has minimal US investment, but she did not say how much.

“No matter how many times the question is asked, and no matter who should ask it for the nth time already, the reply of the Government Service Insurance System will remain the same,” read the statement.

Elamparo dismissed a labor group’s admonition for the GSIS to follow the example of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System in detailing investments.

“Anyone can say that one system is better than another,” read the statement.

“But at the end of the day, that’s just an opinion. What this group wants the GSIS to adopt may not even be applicable under local conditions. Likewise, the US stock market plunge is proof itself that not everything American is A-okay.”

Earlier, GSIS executive vice president Enriqueta Disuanco said the GSIS had named ING Investment Management and Credit Agricole Asset Management (Singapore) Ltd. as global fund managers for its Global Investment Program (GIP).

“Each was given a mandate of $300 million,” she said. “Citibank, N.A. was named as the global custodian.”

Disuanco said GSIS investments under the GIP are fully diversified, not only geographically, but also in terms of asset class, “thus hedging it from the effects of the current US market collapse, in addition to the fact that the program bears a three-year window,” she said.

The GSIS also required that only fund managers with at least $100 billion in assets under management will qualify, Disuanco said.