International Business / The Pacific

Mexico Takes Step to Set Up Pension Funds: President Ernesto Zedillo sent a bill to Congress to establish the country’s first privately run pension funds. Officials said subsidiaries of foreign banks would be able to manage them. In a move Zedillo hopes will pump up the pitifully low savings rate in Mexico and make available funds for long-term investment, the bill would for the first time give Mexicans control over the way their retirement savings are invested. The move follows similar initiatives in other Latin American countries. If, as expected, the bill is approved, individuals, banks and other firms would be allowed to set up funds to invest huge pools of savings in Mexico’s financial markets. Officials estimated it would put about $4 billion a year of new investments into the country’s capital markets.