ITALY - Pensions regulator, Covip, has told the parliament in Rome that it would be wrong and untimely to reform supervision of occupational retirement plans.

The government is currently considering abolishing the watchdog and placing pension funds under the aegis of the Bank of Italy.

CONSOB, the stock markets supervisor, would take responsibility over matters of trading transparency and protocol.

But Professor Luigi Scimia, Covip's president, said that such a division failed to recognise the peculiarities of the occupational savings sector, which was different to the workings of the financial markets per se.

He told the Senate's committee for constitutional affairs that Covip had a unique understanding of pension plans due to a decade of experience and pension funds should not be seen as the same as insurers or financial intermediaries.

Scimia pointed out that dividing up pension supervision by stability and transparency would make Italy an anomaly not just in Europe but the whole world.

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