Social security urgently requires some adjustments to be sustainable for the state and the Italian economy as a whole, and to allow workers and businesses to benefit from it in the best possible way. This is one of the central themes of the debate on the country's future and also includes the solution to the complementary pension, which he dealt with Arca Fondi SGR at a conference entitled “Proposals for the Development of Pension Funds: More Membership in Micro and Small Enterprises and More Capital in the Real Economy.”
The event, hosted at the Chamber of Deputies, featured speakers including Alberto Brambilla, president of the Itinerari Previdenziali study and research center, and Ugo Loeser, CEO of Arca Fondi SGR, along with other industry and political representatives. Supplementary pension provision, the organizers argue, is and must become increasingly a pillar of the Italian welfare system and a strategic lever for the country's economic development, even if in reality the latest sector reform (Law 296/2006 and Legislative Decree 252/2005) went in the opposite direction, subtracting 105 billion from the market and therefore from the real economy, to obligatorily allocate them to INPS and therefore to cover current state expenditure.
Furthermore, Arca claims, "the abolition of the guarantee fund for SMEs appears to be a de facto exclusion from the supplementary pension scheme of employees of small and medium-sized enterprises, who are approximately 11 million people, i.e. 60% of employees. The data in fact show membership rates below 10%, compared to the 70–80% found for workers in large companies”.
Arca Fondi SGR and Itinerari Previdenziali's proposals
The proposals that emerged from the conference are six:
- Reintroduction of the Guarantee Fund for SMEs, to financially support micro and small businesses in transferring their severance pay (TFR) to pension funds, through access to subsidized credit.
- Relaunch of the semesters of silent consent using the automatic registration form to a pension fund, with the option to withdraw (opt-out).
- Changing default choices, moving from a system that favors guaranteed sectors to a model based on life-cycle logic.
- Increase in the investable threshold in the real economy up to 25% of pension fund assets, exceeding the current 10% limit for qualified investments.
- Review of taxation, bringing taxation on pension fund returns back to11% rate and applying it at the time of performance.
- Reform of annuity system: introducing flexible and reversible solutions that allow workers to retain ownership of their assets and transfer them to their heirs in the event of their death.
During the debate, convergent positions emerged regarding the urgency of correcting regulatory distortions and revitalizing the strategic role of supplementary pensions, particularly for workers in micro and small businesses.
The organizers' interventions
“A decisive change of pace is needed,” he stated. Ugo Loeser, CEO of Arca Fondi SGR –. We must overcome the regulatory obstacles that currently block membership and limit pension funds' contribution to the real economy. The country needs a pension system that contributes significantly to economic growth and ensures high returns for members, guaranteeing an adequate standard of living in the future.
Alberto Brambilla, president of the Itinerari Previdenziali Study and Research Center, instead, emphasized that "even more so in a country like Italy, grappling with a major demographic transition and a public debt of over €3.000 trillion that will prevent any future increases in already generous welfare spending, the growth of supplementary pension provision is essential. But to incentivize both an increase in the number of members and the development of pension fund assets (with a ratio of 11,7%, Italy currently ranks 27th among OECD countries in terms of pension fund assets to GDP), foresight and courage are needed. Such as the courage needed to address legislation, which currently is unfavorable to membership, especially among SMEs, and to investments in the real economy, as well as penalizing taxation."
