ITALY– Priamo, the €30m industry wide pension fund for public transport workers in Italy, is looking for an administration and accounting services provider ahead of issuing a full RFP for investment managers for its assets.

The Rome-based fund will draw up a shortlist of potential administration and accounting service providers next month. The initial contract will run for three years. In addition, the fund has also started a selection process for a depositary bank.

A spokesman for the fund says whoever is chosen will need to take into account that the fund anticipates rapid growth. “We have an active membership at the moment of around 25,000 but expect that to rise to over 100,000 in the next five years. We believe our assets will also grow by €30m per year for at least the first few of operation,” he comments.

Established in 1998, the Priamo fund is one of many new industry and sector wide pension funds that have sprung up in the last five years or so in Italy as part of the country’s pensions reform. As with many of its contemporaries, the fund is designed to complement the existing insurance fund and pay-as-you-go systems.