The Chilean Electronic Annuities Market was created in 2004 to correct several aspects of the life annuities market. The Chilean Pension System comprises two phases. In the cumulative phase, savings are collected and managed by the pension fund managers. The decumulation phase basically consists in paying pensions in the form of Life Annuities (LA) and Programmed Withdrawals (PW). The LA market is the interface between these two phases, and therefore, any excessive transaction costs in this market would directly affect the final pension. The Pension Amount Consultation and Offers System (SCOMP) for LAs and PWs, replaced the traditional way in which pensioners sought and bought retirement products in the Chilean market. This electronic quotation system was created to help reduce the search costs for retirees, as well as providers of retirement products (life insurance companies and pension fund managers), and reduce the margin of manipulation by individual brokers.

This article presents and examines the main characteristics of the SCOMP, paying special attention to its effects on the competitiveness of the industry. To this end, statistical proof is presented to assess the benefits of the system in terms of transparency of information, and price competition in the market.