Most importantly, the deposits and cash component expanded, reaching about one third of the total, a historically high figure, but assets directed towards investment fund units and savings managed by insurance companies also rose.
Compared with the European average, Italian households invest a smaller portion of their financial wealth in pension funds (3 per cent, compared with 10 per cent), instead preferring to 2/7  BIS central bankers' speeches  allocate a larger share to investment funds and to ‘shares and participating interests’ (respectively, 15 and 21 per cent, compared with 10 and 18 per cent).