Italy's main banks have decided almost
unanimously to avoid paying the government's new windfall tax on
extra profits by opting to allocate 2.5 times the amount due to
a non-distributable reserve, depriving the Treasury of a total
revenue of approximately 1.8 billion euro.
Intesa Sanpaolo, Unicredit, Banco Bpm, Mps, Bper, Popolare di
Sondrio, Credem, and Mediobanca have all decided to avail
themselves of the measure introduced in an amendment presented
by centre-right government coalition partner Forza Italia (FI)
to the controversial decree approved in August in order to
"reassure the markets" following stock market turmoil.
It is also likely that BNL, Credit Agricole and the many
institutions belonging to Italy's consolidated cooperative
credit system will follow suit.
Premier Giorgia Meloni's fanfare announcement in early August of
a new 40% windfall tax on banks' surplus profits caused
immediate investor concern.
The government subsequently tried to reassure the markets by
saying the tax would be capped at 0.1% of institutes' assets,
but skepticism remained, with Moody's saying the measure is
"credit negative" and the Financial Times describing the move as
"disastrous" and the government's "biggest blunder so far".
FI then presented an amendment to the bill allowing banks to
strengthen their capital rather than paying the tax, which
Meloni said aimed to redress an "imbalance" resulting from the
European central Bank's interest-rate hikes.
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