Italy

ITALY - The European Commission has once again put pressure on Italy to equalise the pension age of men and women, asking the country to move up its plans to have employees retiring at the same age by six years to 2012.

EUROPE/ITALY - The European Commission has issued a new request for Italy to move swiftly to equalise the retirement age for men and women.

As Italy has largely ignored transition management, Giovanni Legorano looks at the reasons for this and asks if this is set to change in the near future

ITALY - The €5.2bn (US$6.4bn) Fondo Cometa has hired nine managers and completed the renewal of mandates for its Monetario Plus, Reddito and Crescita sub-funds due to expire this year.

ITALY - State Street Corp. has completed its €1.28bn (US$1.6bn) cash purchase of Intesa Sanpaolo's Securities Services business (ISPSS), including the firm's custody and fund administration units.

ITALY - The speaker for Italian members of Parliament Gianfranco Fini has called for the creation of a pension safety net for corporate and multiemployer schemes to encourage membership into second pillar pensions.

ITALY - The financial crisis has shown the relative strength of the country's second pillar pension system in comparison with other forms of savings, Schroders' head of distribution for Italy Luca Tenani has said.

ITALY - Italian pension fund service provider PensPlan Centrum posted a 13% profit for 2009 on the back of equity gains.

ITALY - A reform of the Italian pension system including auto-enrolment into a mandatory defined contribution fund should be considered in the near future to push Italians to save more for retirement, industry figures said.

ITALY - Italian schemes are increasingly reviewing their asset allocation and looking to offer lifestyling arrangements to their members in the wake of the losses incurred during the crisis, Towers Watson managing consultant for Italy Fabio Carniol said....