Italian pension fund association Assofondipensione is urging the government to withdraw amendments to the 2026 budget law that would allow employers’ contributions to be transferred to supplementary pension funds other than industry-wide funds, known as ‘fondi negoziali’.
According to the association, the proposed rule would undermine collective bargaining agreements that underpin Italy’s second-pillar pension system, and industry-wide pension funds in particular.
Assofondipensione warned that the portability of employers’ contributions would expose workers to the risk of switching to pension plans “with significantly higher costs and less transparent governance structures”, ultimately eroding pension benefits over time.
The association told IPE that “several sub-amendments” have been tabled to modify the proposals currently under discussion.
“We hope that corrective proposals eliminating the most critical aspects related to the portability will be accepted,” said president Giovanni Maggi.
Italy’s largest trade union, the General Confederation of Labour (CGIL), has also criticised the government’s “unilateral decision” to open up the portability of employers’ contributions “in the name of supposed neutrality”, arguing that it would weaken second pillar pension funds, confederal secretaries Lara Ghiglione and Francesca Re David said in a statement.
Industry-wide pension funds have a track record of protecting members, containing costs and directing investments according to socially responsible criteria, they added.
Santo Biondo, confederal secretary of the Italian Labour Union (UIL), said that allowing the transfer of employers’ contributions to other pension plans “often lacking transparent governance is unacceptable”.
Biondo pointed to proposals in the budget law that would allow contributions to be transferred to open pension funds, known as ‘fondi pensione aperti’, set up by banks, asset managers, investment firms and insurance companies, which are open to all savers.
Sergio Corbello, president of Assoprevidenza, the association representing open pension funds, said that in the future, contributions to pension funds are likely to become a “subjective right”.
“Workers will be free to pay the contribution as they want – a topic that is also intertwined with the Pan-European Pension Product (PEPP) and pan-European reforms on pension schemes,” Corbello said during Assoprevidenza’s annual general meeting held yesterday.
Wide-ranging amendments under scrutiny
The 2026 budget law, currently being examined by the budget committee, is scheduled for parliamentary debate on 22 December, with final approval expected by the end of the year.
Mefop, the organisation for the development of the pension fund market, has analysed more than 4,000 pages of amendments, some of which would also revise the 2005 legislative decree governing supplementary pensions.
Several proposals aim to strengthen the role of pension regulator Covip.
One amendment would introduce a new silent-consent period, between April and September 2026, under which severance pay (Trattamento di Fine Rapporto – TFR) would be automatically transferred to a supplementary pension scheme if employees fail to decide whether to keep it within the company or allocate it to a pension fund.
Other amendments propose shortening the silent-consent period to three months, or even 30 days, with automatic enrolment combined with an opt-out right, according to Mefop.
The silent-consent mechanism “infuriates” the General Accounting Department (Ragioneria Generale dello Stato), which oversees public finances and is concerned that severance payments would no longer flow to the treasury fund (Fondo di Tesoreria) of the Istituto Nazionale Previdenza Sociale (INPS), Corbello said.
Assoprevidenza has proposed enrolling new workers into pension funds, but this has been met with scepticism from the General Accounting Department, which fears a reduction in severance pay flows to the treasury fund – an important source of state income – alongside an increase in deductible contributions, Corbello explained in yesterday’s meeting.
By contrast, a provision changing the limits on allocations to alternative investment funds, particularly infrastructure funds, was approved overnight by the budget committee, he added.
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