Unlike what happened in the first four months of 2013, which marked a clear recovery in funding, in 2012 there was an outflow for 18 billion in the sector of institutional investors (mutual funds, insurance companies, pension funds and asset management), with a clear decrease compared to the 34 million of the previous year. It is what is reported in the Bank of Italy Annual Report.
The total assets of institutional investors increased by 18%, to 1.000 billion, mainly as a result of the transfer to an Italian asset management company of the foreign management of a leading insurance group and, to a lesser extent, of the positive returns on assets under management. In particular, at the end of 2012 the assets of institutional investors amounted to approximately 66% of GDP and managed savings accounted for 24% of household financial assets.
La economic conjecture negative fueled requests for early repayment and kept investments in financial assets low. In the area of mutual investment funds, the net disinvestments concerned the monetary and equity segments and unamortised funds; while conspicuous are the inflows of resources registered in the bond segments.
The share of funds promoted by Italian groups out of the total assets of funds placed in Italy decreased to 71% (in 2011 it amounted to 73%); while the weight of foreign and, in particular, Luxembourgish ones continued to increase. Over the last decade, in fact, Luxembourg has established itself in the field of mutual funds thanks to an advantageous tax regime and less restrictive regulation.
In insurance field, total premiums, net of reimbursement charges, amounted to 4,3 billion. In particular, net inflows in the life business became negative (-5,3 billion) with net outflows mainly relating to unit and index-linked policies (-9,2 billion); while the non-life business continued to record a positive net inflow of 9,6 billion. There company profitability Italian companies improved compared to the previous year above all due to the effect of the capital gains on the government bond portfolio: the profitability index (ROE) stood at positive values for both the life and non-life business (respectively 15 3 3 per hundred)
In the sector of retirement savings the expansion of insurance products continued, while net inflows from the various supplementary pension schemes remained unchanged at 7 billion. However, the size of Italian pension funds is still limited, due both to the limited development of supplementary pensions and to the high fragmentation of the offer. In 2012, according to data published by the Bank of Italy, members of these pension schemes amounted to around 5,8 million, with 40% participating in individual pension plans. The composition of pension fund assets has not undergone significant changes: at the end of 2012, approximately 50% of the portfolio was invested in government bonds, 10% in corporate bonds, 15% in equities and remainder in monetary instruments.
Finally, on the basis of the data provided by the AdePP (Association of Private Social Security Institutions), the net collection of Pension funds in 2011, it was equal to 3,1 billion, in line with what happened in 2010.
