by Angelo Amante, Federico Maccioni and Giuseppe Fonte
ROME (Reuters) – Italy has approved a windfall tax on the profits of banks, which are currently profiting from high interest rates, in an announcement that is sending Europe’s banking sector plummeting on the stock market.
For 2023, Rome plans to tax up to 40% the net interest margin of banks, which measures the difference between the interest rate at which institutions lend and that at which they refinance.
Sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that Rome aims to raise less than three billion euros from this measure.
The Italian government has repeatedly denounced the attitude of the Italian banking sector which, in its view, has not sufficiently passed on the rise in interest rates to the remuneration of savers’ deposits. However, all the Italian banks reported in the second quarter of results boosted by the rise in interest rates.
“You only have to look at the profits of the banks in the first half of the year (…) to realize that it is not a question of a few millions, but (…) of billions”, declared the vice-president of the Council at a press conference in Rome late Monday.
Countries like Spain and Hungary have already imposed a windfall tax on the banking sector.
On the stock market, the index of Italian banks plunged 6% in the morning and that of the compartment in Europe dropped 1.88%.
Italian banks, like BPER Banca, Intesa Sanpaolo, Banco BPM and Unicredit, lost between 5.5% and 7.5%.
(With contributions and written by Valentina Za; Blandine Hénault for the French version, edited by Nicolas Delame)
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