Assets under management (AUM) of Italy’s first pillar pension funds for professionals (casse di previdenza) have increased by 9.9%, or €10.3bn, year-on-year in 2023 to €114,1bn, according to the latest analysis of the schemes’ investments published by pension regulator Covip.

Over the last 10 years, the AUM volume of Italian pension schemes has grown by €48.4bn, equal to an average of 5.7% on an annual basis, it added.

The country’s five biggest pension funds – Enpam, Cassa Forense, Inarcassa, Cassa Dottori Commercialisti and Enasarco – have recorded a higher increase in AUM with an average of 6.9% per year, with peaks of above 8%, Covip’s report added.

Investments in bonds have increased by 1.8% to €43.2bn year-on-year in 2023, and investments in equities went up from 17.4% to 18.9% of total AUM to €21.6bn, while real estate investments decreased by 1.3 percentage points to €18.8bn.

Investments in directly held securities increased from 19.6% in 2022 to 21.2% of total AUM in 2023.

Italian pension funds have boosted their allocations to government bonds from 15.8% in 2019 to 16.8% in 2023. On the other hand, the allocation to other debt securities fell from 5.6% to 4.4% during the same period of time.

First pillar schemes have, instead, cut investments in real estate funds, with allocations going down from 14.7% to 13.7%, and investments in directly owned property, from 2.6% to 2.3%, it added.

Investment in the Italian real economy amounted to €44bn, 38.6% of total AUM, up 3 percentage points year-on-year in 2023, according to Covip.

Real estate investments (€17.1bn or 15% of total assets) and government bonds (€13.8bn or 12.1% of total assets) remain predominant in terms of real economy investments. Compared to 2022, government bonds increased by 3.2 percentage points, while real estate saw a drop of 1.6 percentage points.

Securities and real estate investments netted €6.6bn, equivalent to posting returns of 7.1% last year, according to Covip.

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Luigi is IPE's Berlin-based DACH correspondent. His coverage includes regulation and the latest pensions and investments trends, and, being a native Italian, he also covers Italy’s pensions market. He has reported from Italy and Germany on international politics and business for European and US publications including USA Today, Bloomberg BNA and for the investigative magazine L’Espresso. He was previously Germany correspondent for Mergermarket covering M&A.View full Profile

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