The Italian Government limits the scope of the 40% tax on extraordinary bank profits after the stock market collapse of large entities, which lost nearly 9,000 million in value in one day. The Executive led by Giorgio Meloni said late on Tuesday that the rate may not exceed 0.1% of the entities’ assets and that “it will not have a significant impact” on entities that are remunerating savers’ deposits. A scope substantially lower than initially estimated by the markets.
The retouching has led to a recovery in the stock market of the entities, which in any case have not erased the losses of the previous day after the surprise of the tax. Thus, around 11 and after a couple of hours of trading FinecoBank was the most bullish with a 6% revaluation, followed by Unicredit (4.5%) or Mediolanum (4%). The sector as a whole presented a good tone, with increases of no less than 1.3%. The rest of Europe also woke up with rises.
The first calculations pointed to a collection of between 2,000 and 3,000 million euros with the measure, which would only be applied in 2023. According to Bloomberg, with the new scheme it could be below 1,000 million if it is only applied to the assets of Italy . In any case, the lack of details is preventing an exact analysis. “There seems to be a bit of confusion as to whether this limit would apply to the banks’ total assets, Italian assets or even their risk-weighted assets,” noted Karim Cellier of LMR Partners. “We need clarity. They are key elements to understand the impact on banks like Unicredit, which has a strong presence abroad.”
The Italian Autonomous Banking Federation (FABI) has indicated that “it is evaluating the impact on the sector and on the banking groups” and that its general secretary, Lando Maria Sileoni, “as soon as everything is clearer, starting with the content of the decree , will make the position of the organization known”. Its Spanish competitors have taken the rate applied in Spain to court.
With the initial approach, there was fear above all for the smaller banks, for which a 40% tax on a part of the interest margins could be ruinous, while the impact will be less in the five largest entities, Intesa Sanpaolo, Unicredit , Bank BPM, Monte dei Paschi and BPER.
The money raised will go “to support mortgage payments and fuel tax cuts.” The rule will be activated if the interest margin registered in 2022 “exceeds the value of 2021 by at least 5%”, a percentage that will rise to 10% if 2023 is compared with the previous year. Everything that exceeds these figures will be taxed at 40%, choosing between one or the other year depending on the one that collects the most. As explained at the beginning, it could not exceed 25% of the net worth.
