The board of directors for Inarcassa, the pension fund for self-employed engineers and architects in Italy, has decided to convert the share of its allocation to government bonds (certificati di credito del Tesoro, CCT) into Buoni del Tesoro Poliennali (BTP) to up yields.
BTP are medium to long-term maturity bonds that pay coupons at a fixed interest rate, as opposed to CCT that carry a floating interest rate.
Inarcassa said the pressure on equities, in particular in Europe, was only partially offset by a price recovery of Italian government bonds. Its total assets remained stable at the end of October at over €11bn.
Inarcassa has focused on investments in the real domestic economy, with a basis on the sectors involved in the process of technological innovation.
The board of directors continues to monitor current events in order to assess whether it is necessary to take further action to protect its portfolio from other risks.
Pension fund returns improve
Net returns of industry pension funds (fondi negoziali) bounced back to a positive 0.2% at the end of September of this year, but well below the 7.2% recorded in 2019, according to Italian pension regulator Commissione Di Vigilanza Sui Fondi Pensione (Covip).
Unit-linked individual pension plans PIPs recorded a -4.7% in the first nine months of this year, compared to a positive 12.2% in 2019. Net returns for open pension funds (fondi pensione aperti) stood at -0.9% at the end of September, down from 8.3% last year.
The number of complementary pension plans grew by 172,000, or 1.9%, to 9.28 million at the end of September.
The growth, however, slowed down compared to the period before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Pension contributions in the first nine months of this year totalled €8.2bn, up 1% compared to the same period the prior year due to an increase in contributions paid in industry and open pension funds.
Fopen seeks fund depositary
Fopen, the pension fund for the employees of the energy company Enel, is seeking a depositary. The fund’s assets under management stood at €2.3bn as at 30 October 2020.
Monthly contributions amount to €15m. The fund caters to some 45,981 members, while the number of companies sponsoring it stood at 142, as of 31 December 2019.
Total net income and outcome relating to pension management stood at €62m in 2019.
Fopen is divided into three investment sub-funds: Obbligazionario Garantito, Bilanciato Obbligazionario and Bilanciato Azionario. It invests in private equity for the two bilanciato funds through a management mandate.
Fondoposte elects president, VP
Fondoposte, the complementary pension fund for Italian postal workers, has appointed Giuseppe Sigillò Massara as president and employers’ representative, and Antonio Nardacci as vice president of the fund and employees representative.
The members of the board of directors representing employers in addition to Massara includ Francesco Bonadies, Andrea Carpentieri, Antonio Colombi, Raffaele Fabozzi, Laura Pascali and Andrea Voltolina. The employee representatives at board level in addition to Nardacci include Stefano Angelini, Giuseppe Marinaccio, Nicola Oresta, Nicola Di Ceglie, Vito Romaniello and Martina Scheggi.
The mandate for the new board of directors will last until the approval of financial statements for the year 2022.
Previp chooses Anima Sgr over BNP Paribas
Previp, the Milan-based multi-employer defined contribution pension fund, has selected Anima Sgr to run its bilanciata and bilanciata azionaria options.
The fund had originally selected both Anima Sgr and BNP Paribas Asset Management SGRto run the two investment lines based on a multi-mandate strategy that aimed to push for competition between the managers.
However, Previp said, Anima Sgr has proved to be flexible and able to face challenging trends in the markets such as strong volatility, especially in the last year. It has overperformed compared to BNP Paribas, it added.
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