The year 1999 is the year of commencement of the Company’s actual operations in the important pension fund sector. Already in late ‘98, Unipol was awarded the tender for the management of part of the FONCHIM financial resources, the first Italian contractual Pension Fund, but only in March 1999 does the first cash start flowing in and management becomes operational. Meanwhile, the management of part of the resources of the Pension Fund of Bayer Italy (corporate fund) has already begun in February. Besides the purely financial aspect, intense operations continue to support trade union departments to start new contractual funds, provided by a group of specialists who are part of the two operating units in Bologna and Rome. In April, the placement of two open-ended pension funds ‘Unipol Futuro’ and ‘Unipol Previdenza’ begins. They are distributed through financial advisers and bank tellers at Unipol Banca branches, as well as through agencies.