Italy

ITALY - Direct investment in funds such as hedge funds would help Italian pension funds diversify and generate alpha within portfolios which currently contain no uncorrelated assets, claimed Andrea Canavesio, partner at Mangusta Risk.

ITALY - Members of Pegaso, the pension fund for employees in public utility services, can now choose between three investment strategies with different risk profiles - conservative, balanced and dynamic.

ITALY - A report suggesting pensions liquidated from 2013 onwards should be reduced by an average of 7% will not automatically steer the government to taking this decision, labour minister Cesare Damiano has confirmed.

ITALY - A tentative announcement on changes to be made to the pensions conversion coefficient was met with opposition by one of the largest unions, who claimed the automatic reduction in pensions was unfair.

ITALY - Laborfonds, the pension fund for workers in the Trentino Alto Adige region, registered a negative return of -1.78% in the six months to June 2006, although it beat the benchmark return of -2.04%.

ITALY - Bank of Italy governor Mario Draghi claimed more information on future performance of complementary pensions is needed to encourage workers to transfer their termination indemnity payment (Trattamento Fine Rapporto - TFR) to pension funds.

ITALY - Luciano Scapolo, president of the pension fund for employees in the plastics industry, has been appointed to the same post on Fonchim's administrative council - another industry-wide pension fund.

ITALY - By the beginning of September, the government and the social partners will announce whether the Trattamento di Fine Rapporto (TFR) reform is to be brought forward to 2007.

ITALY - The pensions regulator (Commissione di Vigilanza sui Fondi Pensione - COVIP) has issued directives for pension funds to adapt to the reformed welfare system to be introduced in January 2008.

ITALY - The majority of workers plan not to transfer their termination indemnity payment into pension funds, the Italian mutual savings banks association annual report showed.