I pension fund returns assets in Italy were negative in the first quarter of 2020 due to thecoronavirus emergency. The communication comes directly from Covip: “The first quarter results were affected by the market turbulence – writes the Supervisory Commission on Pension Funds in a note – The returns for the period were therefore negative and the greater the greater the portion of the portfolio invested in equity securities".
However, Covip specifies that, “compared to the performance of the stock lists”, the pension fund system “it has shown an underlying hold".
On the side of performance, explains the Commission, "at the moment there hasn't been an increase in requests, even if in difficult situations an increase is to be considered physiological".
In this regard, Covid recalls that pension fund members, even once the right to the pension benefit has accrued, can choose "not to request the benefit immediately and therefore maintain their position under management, evaluating the most appropriate moment for the exiting the accumulation phase according to one's needs and contingent market conditions".
Also regarding contribution flows the data for the first quarter of 2020 "are in substantial continuity with those of the same period last year".
On the other hand, considering that the contributions to the negotiated pension funds are paid on a quarterly basis, according to Covid it is still "too early to draw assessments about the possible effects of the economic situation which can be more adequately identified in the coming months".
In any case, some pension funds have already taken countermeasures to "take into account the difficult situation in which the reference companies can find themselves", writes Covip again, specifying that the reference is "to the decisions, sometimes taken through trade union agreements, which allow companies in the sector to delay the payment of the contributions of the employer and severance pay for the first quarter".
