Anti-personnel mines, there are already pension funds ready to use the black list

The Nummus.Info blacklist on anti-personnel mines and cluster munitions could soon be used by pension funds. A world in great ferment, that of supplementary pensions. Negotiated funds are in fact building up a robust activity of comparison with portfolio companies, the so-called engagement. A great deal of work, coordinated by Assofondipensione, the association of negotiated funds.

With almost 100,000 members and EUR 2.8 billion in assets under management, Fondoposte could be among the first to adopt the exclusion list. The general manager of the pension fund, Vittorino Metta, explains: 'We have obviously taken action immediately on the basis of Law 220/2021. And we have our own list created thanks to the support of the custodian bank and the managers. We welcome, however, the initiative of a public list of companies to be excluded from the portfolio. This initiative is all the more important because the consultancy firm that drew it up undertakes to keep it up-to-date. That is indeed the sore point of many lists'.

In recent years, pension funds and all other financial intermediaries subject to Law 220/2021 have searched in vain for a public list. In some cases, they were lists of European NGOs which, however, had the defect of not being up-to-date. Now there is a basis on which to reason, possibly enriching the black list with other names. "We will ask the managers to respect the Nummus.Info list ex ante," adds Metta. Our custodian bank will then do an ex post check'.

Another pension fund very interested in the landmine list is the school pension fund, Espero (104,000 members and EUR 1.5 billion in assets). "A public list is certainly useful. The fact that it is drawn up by an Italian company is an equally important element,' says Francesco Moretti, managing director of Espero. We will see whether the list will then also be used by other players in Italian finance