The Philippine Stock Exchange Inc. (PSE) is turning to the country’s largest state-run pension funds to arrest the slump in market participation and offset a persistent exodus of foreign capital.

PSE President Ramon S. Monzon told reporters that the exchange is in talks with the Social Security System (SSS) and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) to revive stock investment loan programs for their millions of members.

Monzon said the initiative aims to inject much-needed liquidity into a local bourse that has struggled to maintain momentum as global investors pull back from emerging markets.

The proposal seeks to improve upon a previous iteration of the program that was discontinued after both institutions and their members incurred losses. In those earlier versions, administrative hurdles prevented many members from securing their shares in a timely manner, leaving them unable to exit positions during market downturns.

Under the new framework being discussed, members would purchase from a curated list of blue-chip stocks, with the SSS or GSIS holding the shares in trust until the loan is fully settled.

Monzon is also pushing for an integration with the Personal Equity and Retirement Account, or PERA, a voluntary savings vehicle designed to supplement mandatory retirement benefits. Despite being active for eight years, PERA has suffered from low adoption rates. As of December 2024, the program had only roughly 6,000 accounts nationwide.

However, Monzon noted that the recent accreditation of digital brokerage DragonFi Securities Inc. as a PERA administrator has already helped push that figure toward 7,000, suggesting that better accessibility could drive growth.

The urgency to bolster domestic participation comes amid a divergence in market data. While the average daily trading turnover on the PSE rose 20% to ₱7.33 billion in 2025 from ₱6.1 billion the previous year, the increase was overshadowed by a spike in capital flight. Net foreign selling more than doubled to ₱51.78 billion last year, compared with ₱23.18 billion in 2024.

By mobilizing the capital of state pension fund members, the PSE hopes to create a more resilient domestic base that can cushion the volatility of international fund flows. Monzon emphasized that private employers should also be encouraged to institutionalize PERA for their staff to further deepen the local capital market.