The pension fund of Italy’s largest banking group, Intesa Sanpaolo, is reducing sub-fund costs following its merger with Fondo Pensioni Cariplo, the scheme for Cariplo bank employees.
Overall management costs for the ‘Conservativo’ sub-fund are set to fall from 0.62% to 0.57%, the pension fund said in a note.
The merged fund, now called Fondo Pensione del Gruppo Intesa Sanpaolo (Fondisp), with more than €10bn in assets under management, has extended Unipol’s asset management mandate for the ‘Conservativo’ sub-fund until 30 June 2028.
As a result of the merger, contributions to the ‘Assicurativo Traditionale’ sub-fund, closed to new members, are automatically redirected to the ‘Stabiltà’ sub-fund, which carries lower costs for the same level of risk, the pension fund said.
Synergies from the merger with Fondo Pensione Cariplo are expected to reduce costs indirectly charged to members and taken from the pension fund’s assets for financial management expenses across other sub-funds.
Annual costs for the ‘Difensivo’ stood at 0.8%, ‘Bilanciato Rischio Controllato’ at 0.26%, ‘Equilibrato’ at 0.24%, ‘Dinamico’ at 0.30% and ‘Dinamico Futuro Responsabile’ at 0.85%, according to a financial statement submitted to pension regulator Covip on 30 September. All sub-funds are open to new members.
By comparison, 2024 costs ranged from 0.13% for ‘Difensivo’, 0.29% for ‘Bilanciato Rischio Controllato’, 0.32% for ‘Equilibrato’, 0.37% for ‘Dinamico’, and 0.94% for ‘Dinamico Futuro Responsabile’.
The pension fund uses the Total Expense Ratio to measure the impact of financial and administrative costs on assets.
The merger of Intesa Sanpaolo’s defined contribution (DC) and defined benefit (DB) schemes with Fondo Pensioni Cariplo, announced last year, was formalised through a new statute that came into force on 1 October.
Cariplo merged into the Intesa Sanpaolo Group Pension Fund to provide both DB and DC plans, “ensuring efficiency, and long-term sustainability, while fully maintaining the individual guarantees accrued” by members, the fund said.
Fondisp, the new pension fund, is also increasing contribution guarantees for ‘Conservativo’ members from 95% to 100%. Severance payments (Trattamento di fine Rapporto, TFR) will flow into the sub-fund without the explicit consent of members.
The ‘Dinamico Futuro Responsabile’ sub-fund is being renamed ‘Futuro Responsabile’. The fund will continue to diversify and reduce risk by introducing a green bond fund.
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