| dc.description.abstract | The product of my 3 months internship in Dhaka, Bangladesh, as a Trainee Executive of Plan Administration in DataPath Limited is Retirement Provident Fund (RPF): A Comparative Analysis between USA and Bangladesh. The first USA-Bangladesh joint venture company which collaborates with July Business Services, a U.S. FinTech company, in the 401(k) retirement plan administration and BPO business is DataPath Limited. July Business Services manages more than 9 000 U.S. retirement programs and has in excess of 50 TPA customers. The internship conducted made me understand the regulatory, operations, and administrative requirements of the U.S. retirement plan administration required during this comparative analysis. US retirement schemes are one of the most complicated and strict ones. These systems are operated by IRS, DOL and ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974) in the U.S. They consist of defined benefit and defined contribution plans, the most commonly used one in the private sector being the 401(k). Approximately 40 trillion US retirement funds by 2024. Plan administration is not an easy task but one that is required because of the annual compliance requirements such as ADP, ACP, Top-Heavy nondiscrimination testing, contribution limit testing, and Form 5500 reports. The retirement system in Bangladesh is mostly made up of non-contributory pension scheme among government employees as well as the gratuity and contributory provident schemes among employees in the private sector. There is a lack of a universal required retirement coverage system, a pension regulator in the private sector and openness and institutional depth of the U.S. model. Such recent developments as Universal Pension Scheme and iBAS++ digital pension record storage have potential, but they fail to resolve structural coverage issues. The internship included census data verification, W-2 compensation evaluation, calculate match/profit sharing, eligibility check, and compliance test. These check-ups which were performed with the help of Relius and Microsoft Excel showed 401(k) plan administrations and the significance of data accuracy in the regulation compliance. It suggests a special pension regulator, increasing the number of individuals covered by the private sector (in 2019 the number of those who are entitled to retirement benefits is only 54 million of 163 million people), passing nondiscrimination legislation as in the U.S., and enhancing financial literacy in retirement savings in Bangladesh. The U.S. system of 401(k) can be an example that Bangladesh can follow to develop an inclusive and sustainable system of retirement in the country due to its robust regulatory framework, extensive coverage, and tax benefits. | en_US |
