Vultures, in the form of banks and insurance companies, are hovering in increasingly large groups around working Italians’ money at the moment. They are making a serious attempt to gain control of a portion of it. This chunk of money is known as the ‘TFR’.
The almost mythical TFR, if you didn’t know, is a payout full time Italian employees get when they leave their jobs. This payment is related to pay level and length of service and can amount to a significant sum over time. The money could be viewed as being an approximate Italian equivalent to unemployment benefit, I suppose.
Anyway, this ‘fund’ used to be managed by the dear old Italian government, but now, well, up until the end of June, Italian employees can opt to put the management of this money into the hands of banks and insurance companies or to leave the money in the hands of the government (!).
Stop reading, start speaking
Stop translating in your head and start speaking Italian for real with the only audio course that prompt you to speak.
Judging by all the TFR related adverts all over the TV, papers and whatever other advertising medium can be garnered into service, the banks etc must reckon there is a tidy sum to be made and seem to be almost desperate, in a well marketed kind of way, to gain control of this cash.
No wonder certain Italian political figures have been caught chatting to certain banking institutions. Insider dealing? No, perish the thought.
Of course, the current dismally low level of popularity enjoyed by the policos here may also convince people to shift their money out of state hands. Into banks, which have politicians as shareholders possibly? No, no, another silly thought.
