August does not warm up the collection of individual savings plans

Still in the red. In August, more than EUR 25 million left the coffers of individual savings plan managers, a trend that confirms the sector's bearish outlook, at least in terms of new flows. This latest result brings inflows since the beginning of the year to -605 million, a much better figure than the 1.5 billion redeemed in the first eight months of 2023, but still far from the break-even point. Undoubtedly, investors in August have other things on their minds than subscribing to Pir, but there were still many who took the time to redeem units.

Among the various types of products, only the bond segment bucked the trend with a positive balance of EUR 44.5 million, a figure which, however, was exclusively the result of subscriptions directed towards the Eurizon Edizione 7 fund, which continues to monopolise attention, albeit with less intensity than in recent months. The attraction for bonds is spreading and has also convinced Mediolanum, which has just launched a Pir bond fund called Mediolanum Obbligazionario Italia that will invest mainly in corporate bonds, listed on regulated markets, issued by large, medium and small Italian companies. This is the third product from the stable that joins the two flexible products that have already been on the market for some time.

Probably the idea of investing in a product that is quieter than an equity, which focuses on the segment of medium-small companies and which, compared to a traditional product, offers the tax advantage, is convincing, on the one hand, companies to propose the instrument in an attempt to revive interest in these instruments, and on the other, investors looking for a less aggressive use for their savings, who are mainly targeting the Italian market with the prospect of not being taxed on any capital gains. In short, a sort of alternative to the BTp which, with the prospect of a fall in interest rates, becomes less attractive in terms of yield (those who already have them in their portfolios, on the other hand, in a bearish scenario can make a capital gain as a result of the rise in quotations).

But while attention is turning to bonds, returns so far have come mainly from equities with 72% over five years offered by Leadersel Pmi, 56.4% by Eurizon Pir Italia Azionario and 56% by Arca Azioni Italia. These products are also among the best since the beginning of the year along with Mediobanca Mid&Small cap (the best with 12.5%), Sella Investimenti Azionari Italia (10.8%) and Mediolanum Flessibile Futuro Italia (10.5%).

There is always Eurizon at the top of the funding classification of companies that manage individual savings plans. The Sgr of the Intesa Sanpaolo group collected 37.4 million in August, still a very positive result but significantly lower than the 52 million of July. While remaining in negative territory, Mediolanum improved its position by more than halving the red from the previous survey (from -€28m to -€11m), while Banca Generali (-€10.2m) and Arca Fondi(-€6m) failed to climb the slope.