Mumbai: The retirement funds corpus might have risen to 12-15 lakh crore in 2012 from around 11 lakh crore in 2011, says a report.

"The retirement funds corpus is estimated in the range of 12-15 lakh crore," an EY-CII report said.

According to the report, almost one-third of the corpus is in the employees provident funds which is the principle source of retirement planning for workforce in the organised sector.

It said by 2030, 12 per cent of the population will be in the age bracket of 60 plus years, which will translate into near 180 million people.

"Because of the sheer numbers, this will be a very large population, much larger than the population of many developed countries," the report said.

EY India partner and national leader for financial services, Abizer Diwanji said, "the domestic pension business has immense potential to grow due to the fact that a large segment of its population has no access to a retirement fund."

The pension sector is very important for the growth of the Asia's third largest economy since pension funds can support funding of long-term infrastructure projects, bring stability in capital markets and help its elderly population to be financially independent, he said.

According to the report currently pension funds constitute 11 per cent of the GDP.

The report estimates that investment corpus in the pension sector should grow to over USD 1 trillion by 2025.

The report said there was a need for pension providers to increase their communication with masses to address the needs and wants of customers.

According to an EY global consumer insurance survey carried out last year, almost 50 per cent of consumers rated service quality below their expectations.

Pension providers should strengthen their communication-related efforts to take full benefit of prevailing pension schemes, the report said.

The report also said 74 per cent of Indians actively research life and pension products before buying them.