Assofondipensione, while deeming the risk that payments to pension funds could be involved in bank bailouts a remote possibility, requests a clarifying intervention by the legislator on Legislative Decree 180/2015 which introduced the so-called bail-in in Italy. The Association, which represents 32 category pension funds with over two million members, points out that the assets of the funds themselves are safe, as are the various forms of managed savings, which cannot be involved even if the bank were to to fail.
The issue concerns liquid sums that are temporarily deposited with banks to be later invested in pension funds. In the absence of explicit protection in the text of the bail-in legislation, the question remains open. In any case, this liquidity represents a minimal portion of the pension funds' assets, such as not to jeopardize the positions of individual workers. Assofondipensione emphasizes that banks of proven solidity are selected to deposit liquidity. Not to mention that in the event of a bail-in there are many levels of involvement in the bailout (bank shareholders, subscribers of bank bonds, etc.), before reaching the liquidity of deposits exceeding 100 euros protected by the Interbank Guarantee Fund.
The supervisory authorities, the Bank of Italy and Covip have been referred to the matter. “On the basis of these insights – Covip replied to Assofondipensione -, in particular, it was found that the protection of pension fund resources held with a bank subject to resolution would not be complete. In particular, it would not be possible to subtract the liquid assets entrusted to it from the effects of the bail-ins concerning this bank. The need therefore emerged for a regulatory intervention aimed at introducing a protection mechanism suitable for protecting these availabilities from the effects of the bail-in, being the belief shared by both Authorities that this void cannot be filled with interventions of administrative type. Considering the important social security function performed by pension funds, the Commission therefore immediately made such a request in the competent offices, submitting possible solutions to the evaluation of the supervising Ministries".
