Italy

ITALY - The overall subscription to Italian pension funds has increased by 7.2% over 2008, despite severe market turmoil, data by COVIP reveal.

ITALY - Pension watchdog COVIP has intensified its supervisory activity after negative investment results were posted by the majority of Italian schemes.

ITALY - The circa €660m (US$840.9m) open pension fund Arca Previdenza is set to receive new members following a decision by supervisory authority COVIP that the €3m Fondo Pensione Complementare Nazionale Famiglia will be liquidated, MandateWire reports....

ITALY - Bank of Italy's vice director general Antonio Finocchiaro has been nominated president of COVIP, the Italian watchdog of pension funds.

ITALY - Consulting firms Mercer and Tesi have merged to create one of the country's largest human resources consultants.

ITALY - Italian economy minister Giulio Tremonti has called for a ban on hedge funds, defining such funds as "insane".

ITALY - Italian regulators are set to review current rules which prohibit pension funds from investing in hedge funds, following the decision by the government's Treasury department to launch a public consultation on a draft regulatory document by the...

ITALY/US - Continuing uncertainty over the international impact of the collapse of Lehman Brothers has forced the Italian pension fund regulator and Texas Teachers Retirement System (TRS) to clarify their positions on the defunct bank.

ITALY - The Italian supervisory commission on pension funds (COVIP) has signed a framework agreement of collaboration with the Guardia di Finanza (GdF), in order to put in place legal provisions for the protection of savings.

ITALY - Italian pension funds are in need of an organisational overhaul to keep up with the evolution of fund management practices, a study by Mefop, the Italian society for the development of the pension fund market, has concluded.