The Italian Securities Commission (Consob) published Statistical Bulletin No. 26 on intermediaries, showing a double-digit shift towards equities in portfolios and custody deposits held with Italian intermediaries in 2024. Holdings of shares issued by companies listed or traded on the Milan stock exchange rose 20.8% versus 2023 and investment funds (OICR) increased 11.5%, with the total value of financial instruments held with Italian intermediaries reaching EUR 4,052bn, up 3.4% year on year. Activity volumes across investment services were positive in 2024, including placements of financial instruments (+10.1%), proprietary trading (+74.5%), order execution (+10.0%) and reception and transmission of orders (+7.8%). Gross premiums from the placement of predominantly financial insurance products distributed in Italy by Consob-supervised intermediaries rose 32.6%, driven by unit-linked policies (+33.5%). Assets under management at Italian intermediaries ended the year at EUR 1,621bn (+7.5%), supported mainly by individual portfolio management (+4.4%, 65.3% of the total) and Italian-domiciled OICR, with open-ended up 22.8% and closed-ended up 9.1%; net inflows into Italian open-ended OICR were about EUR 48.6bn. Italian asset management companies (SGR) reported net profit of over EUR 1,865m (up EUR 400m), attributed mainly to higher net fees (EUR 625.7m) offsetting increases in operating costs (EUR 175.3m) and taxes (EUR 103.1m), while Italian investment firms (SIM) posted net profit of EUR 98.7m (up EUR 26.6m) on higher net trading results (EUR 22m) and lower operating costs (EUR 32m) despite a fall in net fees (EUR 32.5m).

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