Current account, how much do you cost me? Bank of Italy answered this question with an ad hoc report which, the report itself specifies, presents “the main results of the survey on cost of current accounts carried out by the Bank of Italy in the first half of 2021 ″.
“The text – it reads – was edited by Alessandro Scognamiglio and Valentina Morena” and the “survey was carried out by the branches of the Bank of Italy which handled the collection and control of the data”.
Let’s see what emerged from the report, which recalled that, “from 1 January 2020, the new transparency provisions for current accounts and payment accounts offered to consumers came into force; they require to indicate in the information documents sent to customers the Total Cost Indicator (ICC) which replaces the ISC “.
Now, “the calculation of the new indicator takes place on the basis of operating profiles similar to those used for the ISC, while including expenses in the past not considered as expenses for issuing payment cards“.
Bankitalia specified that, “in the survey, as usual”, “information on the commissions applied and on the interests connected to any overdrafts and current account credit lines” was acquired and that “the survey carried out in 2021 was conducted on almost 13,000 bank current accounts and 1,000 postal current accounts, selected from 605 bank branches and 49 post office branches respectively; the bank account figure includes almost 1,000 online accounts that cannot be referred to branches ”.
Conventional current accounts: management expense rises to 90.9 euros
Among the main results, there is obviously the first “the expense of managing a current account“Which, in 2020, was”equal to 90.9 euros, a value slightly higher than that of the previous year (90.7 euros) “. The increase is the fifth consecutive, “although of a very limited amount and in further deceleration compared to the previous year”. That said, what was the reason for this increase?
“The limited change in expenditure is the balance of two opposing movements – the report reads – on the one hand fixed expenses, the growth of which is mostly attributable to basic rents; on the other variable expenses, due to an almost generalized reduction in operations, particularly pronounced for branch operations “.
In this regard, “fixed costs, which amount to 64.1 euros and represent about two thirds of total expenditure, they grew by 4.3 euros (2.1 in 2019). The growth is attributable to the movement in expenditure for basic fees (2.8 euros; 1.6 in 2019 and 3.9 in 2018), which in turn was determined from the higher fee (from 53.2 to 56.3 euros); the share of customers required to pay the rent remained almost stable (from 69 to 70 per cent) “.
“Other significant increases involved “other fixed expenses” (1,3 euro) and the cost of issuing credit cards (0.7 euros), both to be related to the growth of commissions “.
With regard to variable expenses, on the other hand, the decrease, equal to 4.1 euros, “reflects an almost generalized contraction in operations. The greatest variation is due to cash withdrawals at ATMs (2.5 euros), lower costs for recording transactions (3.2 euros), bank transfers. The only increase was the expense for online transfers due to the greater number of transactions carried out; the only increase in commissions, which can be found in the “other variable expenses”, was offset by the lower operations ”.
Bank of Italy added that, in 2020, the payment of the stamp duty was 17 euros (€ 17.2 in 2019) “and that” including this tax, the management fee “ it rose to “107.9 euros”.
Online accounts: expenditure of 21.4 euros, ‘significantly less’ than traditional accounts
There is a notable difference between the expense to be incurred for the management of a ‘traditional’ current account and that for an online account.
In the latter case, the expenses have decreased.
“In 2020 the cost of managing an online account was € 21.4, 1.2 euros less than the previous year: similarly to what was recorded for ordinary current accounts, two opposite movements can be observed, with an increase in fixed expenses less pronounced than the corresponding decrease in variable expenses. Similarly to conventional accounts, there is an almost generalized decrease in the orders made, with the exception of online transfers; at the same time, the cost of the basic fee, which constitutes a significant expense also for this class of accounts, increased due to the higher percentage of customers required to pay the fee “.
However, the difference is notable: “Spending on online accounts stands at a significantly lower level than that of conventional bank accounts: the spending gap, equal to 69.4 euros, mainly derives from a cheaper tariff structure, rather than from the different composition of the basket of services used. The largest difference, equal to 30.9 euros, can be seen in the expenditure for basic fees and depends on two factors: the lower percentage of customers required to pay fees (47.5 percent of online customers versus 70 of the traditional one); the lower amount of the basic fee equal to 31.9 per cent of the conventional accounts. Even the lowest expense for issuing and managing payment cards comes from lower fees. A more favorable tariff profile is also observed in the area of variable expenses, mainly for accounting entry costs, free of charge in online accounts, cash withdrawals at ATMs, bank transfers and automatic payments “.
Postal current accounts: management cost of 53 euros
How much they amount instead the expenses for managing a postal current account?
Again, the expense is lower than that of conventional current accounts. Let’s see how much:
“In 2020, the cost of managing a postal account decreased by 1.2 euros, settling at 53.0 euros. The underlying dynamics are substantially consistent with those described for the other types of accounts and are hinged on the generalized reduction in operations, with the only exception represented, also in this case, by online transfers. The gap between postal and ordinary accounts, equal to 37.8 euros, it is attributable both to the particular composition of the basket of services and operations and to the tariff structure. In fact, postal customers occasionally use services such as the keeping of securities dossiers that feed the ‘other fixed expenses’ (just over one percent of postal customers against 20 percent of bank customers); the percentage of customers holding at least one credit card is also much lower among postal accounts (9 versus 37 per cent). Furthermore, appreciable differences also persist in terms of tariffs, with reference to the basic fees. With regard to variable expenses, the greatest differences are attributable to the costs of writing transactions carried out at the counter, substantially free for postal accounts, the lower costs for automatic payments and for i prelievi ATM”.