"The Closed Private Pension Entities (Entidades Fechadas de Previdência Complementar – EFPC)
are private, non-profit organizations, established by single employers, multiple employers and recently by labor unions or professional associations. The regime is financed by employers and/or employees contributions on occupational or associative basis. The pension funds’ assets are legally segregated from the sponsors’ and submitted to specific accounting, financing and actuarial regulations.
Historically, the industry has grown based on the employment ties in State owned, large multinational companies following the Bismarckian tradition. But recently, some innovations have been implemented to extend the coverage to other groups, including small and medium enterprises, labor unions, professional associations and, in the future, civil servants. In 2003, there were 360 entities (pension funds), sponsored by 2108 companies. These pension funds (Closed Entities) have accumulated US$ 82.9 billion (15.9% of the GDP) in assets, covering 1.7 million workers (+4.2 million dependents), which is equivalent to 2.2% of the labor force, and 570 thousand beneficiaries (Table 2)."