Fondo Pensione Gruppo Bancario Crédit Agricole Italia (Fondo CAI), the pension fund of French banking group Crédit Agricole in Italy, has integrated the pension fund for the employees of Credito Valtellinese (Creval) bank.

The schemes’ merger follows the takeover of Creval by Crédit Agricole Italia in 2021, and a union agreement that also covered supplementary pensions and the impact of the acquisition on the group’s pension fund.

A “joint technical commission” conducted an assessment to define the roadmap for the integration of both schemes’ sub-funds, according to Fondo CAI’s 2023 annual report.

As a result, Creval proceeded with the transfer “in kind” of the assets in its sub-funds ‘Linea 3’ (€76.54m), and ‘Linea 4’ (€89.33m), managed by Eurizon Capital, to Fondo CAI’s sub-funds ‘Orizzonte 20’ and ‘Orizzonte 30’, it added.

The schemes opted for the transfer “in kind” as the investment options were similar and use the same custody bank, BFF Bank.

Fondo CAI committed to handing the mandate over to Eurizon to manage the assets transferred to the two sub-funds following the merger, Creval disclosed.

The management contract for Creval’s ‘Linea 12’ (€31.25m) was fully transferred Fondo CAI but has an expiring date set for 31 December 31.

Creval’s ‘Linea 5’, managed by Generali, and worth €109.57m, was merged with Fondo CAI’s ‘Linea a Capitale Garantito’, managed by CA Vita, the insurance arm of Crédit Agricole.

The merger of the two schemes pushed Fondo CAI’s total assets to €1.09bn last year, from €707.50m the prior year.

Employees who were members of the Creval pension fund had the opportunity to join the Crédit Agricole scheme automatically.

Fondon CAI’s contributions grew to €404.1m last year, including €74.4m monthly contributions and severance pay paid by members and companies, and €329.7m mainly coming from other funds, considering the integration of the Creval’s scheme, it added.

The number of members increased by 32.52% to 15,452 in 2023, including 3,143 members joining from Creval and from Crédit Agricole FriulAdria (CA Friuladria), another bank recently bought by Crédit Agricole Italia.

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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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