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The Retirement Savings System or simply SAR, as it is popularly known by its initials, is nothing more than a monetary benefit or remuneration in addition to the minimum salary received by workers through the employer in compliance with the law established by the Mexican Social Security since May 1, 1992. The amount contributed by the employer is 2% of the Base Contribution Salary, taking into account only the days worked, such contribution is sent every two months through the savings system.
Therefore, the main objective of the SAR is to promote and guarantee the appropriate way for each person working legally in Mexico to have a guaranteed savings fund, which he/she can use after retirement.
What is the SAR National Database?
The SAR works intertwined with an exceptional instrument called the National Database, which was developed in 1995 and since then, it contains individual information of each Mexican worker, as well as every movement made by the Afore (Retirement Fund Administrators). 995 and since then, it contains the individual information of each Mexican worker, as well as each movement made by the Afore (Retirement Fund Administrators). Therefore, the National Database has at first hand and in an orderly manner, all the additional resources to the base salary that the employer contributes to its workers, such as voluntary contributions, payment of commissions, payments under the Social Security Law (Retirement, Severance and Old Age and Housing Savings Fund), the withdrawal of unemployment assistance and the yields generated.
It should be noted that all the records in the National Database are entered using the CURP and the NSS (social security number) of each worker in order to avoid errors or duplicate data as much as possible, on the other hand, if a person for any reason decides to stop working, The National Database must also keep track of the fund, even if the fund remains unchanged, in order to guarantee that the woman or man has access to their retirement savings once they reach the established age, have suffered a disability that prevents them from working for the rest of their lives, or die, so that an authorized family member can make use of it.
Operating Companies of the SAR National Data Base
Although there is the possibility that there may be more than one operating company working simultaneously (hence the plurality in the name of Operating Companies), at present there is only one private company that, through a public bidding process, was awarded the concession by the Federal Government to be in charge of the first-hand administration of the Promoter Agent Information System and the SAR National Database, its name is Procesar.
Functions of Procesar
There are many functions that Procesar performs and below we will detail each one of them so that you can learn more about what this Operating Company does.
- Ensure continuous purging and updating of the SAR National Database.
- Adequate development of computer and telecommunication systems, this will allow FOVISSSTE, INFONAVIT, IMSS, SIEFORES, ISSSTE and the SAR to share information among them in an efficient and controlled manner.
- Mark and unmark individual accounts, this is done when an account is affected by a housing loan, an Afore-Afore transfer request, a pension process, a judicial process, among others.
- Notifying the Afore, so that they know before the cut-off of each period what the balance of the Housing Sub-account is so that they can then send each registered worker the Quarterly Account Statement.
- Identify each of the individual accounts registered in PENSIONISSSTE or in the Afore.
- Certification of registration and transfer requests of the Afore, with this, they are the main responsible for ensuring that each Afore adheres to the regulations and fully complies with all the requirements of their applications, in order to ensure proper operation and safeguard the interests of workers.
- Supervision of the opening of an individual account, therefore, it must closely monitor all orders issued by the Afore for the opening of an individual account, as well as any transfers made from one Afore to another Afore.
- Disable accounts with zero balances, this occurs when an account has gone through a process of separation, unification or total disposition of the resources, whether it is a pension ruling or a refusal of the same.
- Keep the National Commission of the Retirement Savings System (CONSAR) informed, within the regulations, of everything that concerns an individual’s savings fund.
Finally, the Operating Company Procesar, through its multiple functions, must ensure that the information provided by the Afores on the SAR National Database is always secure, integrated, organized, updated and as reliable as possible.
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