At the end of 2024, social security funds showed total assets of 125.1 billion euros, up 9.8% compared to 2023, with a weight compared to GDP of 5.7%. Over the last ten years, the sector’s overall resources have grown by 53.2 billion, equal to an average of 5.7% on an annual basis. This is what emerges from the report “Social security funds. Investments: size and composition – year 2024” presented by the President of COVIP Mario Pepe at the Chamber of Deputies.
“The report represents a fundamental tool for understanding the state and prospects of a crucial sector of our welfare system”
said Mario Pepe, adding
“we are talking about a sector that manages huge assets, which collects and invests the mandatory resources of millions of professionals, and which carries out not only an economic but also a social and public interest function”
The figure is affected by social security contributions and investments
Various factors contributed to the change in assets, such as social security balances, i.e. the difference between contributions collected and benefits provided, and the profitability of investments. In 2024, the overall flow of contributions, net of benefits, stood at 4.4 billion euros. The average profitability of investments was 7%, thanks to the favorable performance of the financial markets, while over a broader ten-year horizon, the average compound annual profitability was 2.9%.
The composition of the assets
Looking at the composition of the assets, it emerges that the units of UCITS (mutual funds, SICAVs and SICAFs) represent the majority component of the assets (53.7% of the total) for a total of 67.2 billion euros, of which 36.9 billion are made up of UCITS, i.e. funds and SICAVs that invest in financial instruments, and 30.3 billion from other UCITS (16.7 billion are shares of real estate funds).
Among the other main components of assets, debt securities amount to 26.7 billion, of which a large portion (20.7 billion) is represented by government bonds, while capital securities amount to 10.4 billion.
Overall, aggregating the bonds and shares underlying the UCITS held by pension funds: bond investments, equal to 47.7 billion euros, represent 38.1% of assets (stable compared to 2023), while share investments, equal to 24.2 billion euros, constitute 19.4% of assets, up by 0.5 percentage points compared to 2023. Real estate investments, equal to 19.8 billion of euros, continue to fall as a percentage of assets (15.8 in 2024, 16.5 in 2023).
Investments in the Italian economy
Investments in Italy by social security funds amount to 48.1 billion euros, 38.4% of assets (the percentage is decreasing by 0.2 percentage points compared to 2023). Within domestic investments, real estate investments remain predominant (17.2 billion equal to 13.7% of total assets) and government bonds (15.5 billion equal to 12.4% of total assets).
The total at the end of 2024 of investments in securities of Italian companies is 9.6 billion euros, equal to 7.6% of total assets, of which 8.7 billion consist of shares (1.9 billion representing shares of the capital of the Bank of Italy) and 900 million of bonds (these belong in particular to the financial sector for over 50% of the total).
