Superintendency of Banks approves merger of severance funds in GOBECUADOR

The Superintendency of Banks approved the merger by union of the severance funds of the Government of Bolívar and the Ministry of the Interior of the Province of Los Ríos, which will be extinguished without liquidation and succeeded by a new single pension entity called Closed Complementary Pension Severance Fund for the Servants of the Governments of Ecuador “FCPC GOBECUADOR”. The decision is contained in Resolution No. SB-DNATS-2026-3744, signed on October 23, 2026, and published in Official Registry No. 403 on Thursday, November 5, 2026.

The resolution is issued under the Organic Monetary and Financial Code and the Social Security Law, which subject closed complementary pension funds to the regulation, supervision, and oversight of the Superintendency of Banks. The immediate operational framework is Resolution No. JPRFM-2025-005-F, dated October 31, 2025, from the Financial and Monetary Policy and Regulation Board, which reformed Chapter XL “On Closed Complementary Pension Funds” and regulated the process of returning these funds—currently managed by the Bank of the Ecuadorian Social Security Institute (BIESS)—to the administration of their participants. Articles 100 and 103 to 109 of that chapter establish the procedure for merger by union, the right of opposition, and the succession of rights and obligations.

The file involves nearly a year of processing. The general assemblies of participants of both funds, meeting on December 4 and 26, 2025, opted for the merger; the extraordinary assemblies on February 2 and 3, 2026, approved the project, the bylaws, and the name reservation. Official Letter No. SB-SG-2026-01246-O, dated January 30, 2026, had already reserved the name FCPC GOBECUADOR.

Two funds with their own history and a single succession

• FCPC-GB: registered by Resolution No. SBS-2006-262, dated April 28, 2006; its current name was approved by Resolution No. SB-DTL-2017-1031, dated November 29, 2017.
• FCPC-CMILOR: originated as the Private Severance Fund for the Servants of the Ministry of Government of the Province of Los Ríos “FONCEMGLOR”, approved by Resolution No. SB-DTL-2016-192, dated March 16, 2016; its name change and bylaw reform are contained in Resolution No. SB-IRG-DRTL-2018-297, dated July 20, 2018.
• Formal request: Official Letter No. 005-FCPC-CONJUNTO-2026, dated March 18, 2026 (process SB-SG-2026-12194-E), submitted by Diana Carolina Estupiñán Loor and Jimmy Armando Paredes Muñoz, legal representatives of both funds.
• Feasibility: report SB-INCSS-2026-027-I, dated May 5, 2026, from the National Intendancy for the Control of the Social Security System, favorable to the merger.

Article 3 provides that the new fund succeeds the merged funds by operation of law and assumes the entirety of their rights, assets, liabilities, equity, obligations, contracts, guarantees, and contingencies, intervening in all lawsuits and proceedings in which the latter appeared as a party. The transfer shall be carried out preserving the individualization, integrity, and traceability of the accounts and pension rights. Article 4 orders its registration in the Public Registry with its principal domicile in Babahoyo, province of Los Ríos, under the individual capitalization regime for severance pay and as a Type I Fund, with the initial equity consisting of the total transfer of the assets, liabilities, and equity of both funds; the resolution does not detail amounts.

Closed opposition and transition under BIESS tutelage

The extract of the merger was published once on September 21, 2026, in the newspaper El Universo, Judicial section, page 24, to enable the right of opposition under Article 106 of Chapter XL. The General Secretariat certified on October 7, 2026, that no written submission was entered into the SUPEX system nor in the citizen service email, and the National Directorate of Authorizations and Corporate Procedures issued a favorable report on October 22.

Article 5 declares the extinction without liquidation of FCPC-GB and FCPC-CMILOR, with individual exclusion from the Public Registry, and clarifies that this does not affect the rights of participants, beneficiaries, or third parties, which pass to the new fund. Article 6 charges BIESS with appointing the legal representative of the resulting fund from among the legal representatives of the two merged entities, and Article 7 mandates the establishment of a Temporary Board of Directors of three or five principal members, without alternates, qualified by the control entity. The signing of the delivery-receipt act—including an inventory of assets, investments, individual accounts, contracts, and databases—and the formation of the basic structure complete the transition calendar, with the obligation to report documents to the Superintendency and submission to extra situ and in situ supervision.

Article 10 adds an express guarantee: during the transition, the continuity of benefit payments, the recovery of investments, the attention to participants, and the custody of assets must be ensured, with expenses subject to criteria of legality, prudence, austerity, and transparency.

What it means for the employees of both entities

The contributions and accumulated rights of the public servants of the Government of Bolívar and the Ministry of the Interior in Los Ríos are neither lost nor liquidated: they migrate to a single individual account within a larger fund. The practical interpretation is twofold: two legal entities and their governing bodies disappear, and the participants come to depend on a fund domiciled in Babahoyo, with a designated temporary administration involving the BIESS and reinforced supervision from the regulatory body. Furthermore, the merger is part of the return of closed complementary funds to the hands of their participants, a structural change that will affect the entire universe of severance funds in the Ecuadorian public sector.

Source: Official Registry, No. 403, Thursday, November 5, 2026, p. 2 (official reference: Resolution No. SB-DNATS-2026-3744).