MILAN. Zero point zero zero. It is the phantom percentage of the interest rate paid by the top five Italian banks on the money parked in current accounts by their customers. The data is easily obtained by sifting through the thousands of information contained in the information prospectuses of some of the accounts currently offered on the market by each of these institutions.
The banking world has welcomed the Meloni government’s tax on extra profits with great displeasure. However, the data confirms that the institutions do not return anything to families who leave their money in the current account, money which is then also used to grant credit. Conversely, banks charge high rates, even 6%, to those who take out a home loan or use a loan to finance a car purchase. The gap is really wide.
But why is this gap so big? The ghost rate for the account was reached in the years in which the European Central Bank (ECB) lowered rates to zero. With each cut in the cost of money, the banks immediately adapted and reduced their annual lending rate. In some European countries, such as Germany, this type of “remuneration” has even been pushed below zero.
Now that the ECB has resumed raising the cost of money, the remuneration of the accounts has however remained at a standstill. Almost no bank has restarted the upward return of yields on basic current accounts. On the contrary, the rates charged for credit to households and businesses were immediately adjusted. Variable mortgages, the most expensive at the moment, travel in the 5% area if you look at the proposals of the five main banking institutions.
According to data released yesterday by the Bank of Italy, in June the rates on loans granted to households for the purchase of homes including ancillary costs (Taeg) stood at 4.65%, up from 4.58%. of May. Codacons has calculated an extra cost for families with variable mortgages of up to 4 thousand euros a year from 2021. And that’s not all. From Bankitalia’s analysis, banks are tightening credit lines: in June the decline in loans to non-financial companies by Italian credit institutions continued (-3.2% from -2.8% in May) .
The contraction also affects mortgages. According to Bank of Italy, in the second quarter the share of operators who reported difficulties in obtaining a mortgage by buyers increased by 0.8%, reaching 30.9%. This is the highest value since the end of 2014. Now the fear is that, with the announcement of the levy on interest margins, the banks will turn off the taps even more.
Meanwhile, families, grappling with high living costs and high mortgages, are forced to draw on savings in the bank and are no longer able to put anything aside. According to Bank of Italy numbers, there was a sharp drop of 4.3% in deposits, and in absolute terms their equivalent value was reduced to 2,444 billion euros, the lowest for over three years, compared to 2,614 billion in May.
Returning to the interest paid by current accounts, it must be said that this type of service has changed over the years. Accounts are no longer those of the 80s or 90s that were generous with rates. Today, institutions tend to focus on other types of “remuneration” and instead of giving money, new customers are offered one-off purchase vouchers for several hundred euros and promotions on online purchases. Or they eliminate costs and commissions. Customers who want to make their savings bear fruit are directed to other products such as remunerated current accounts or deposit accounts which, in any case, if not tied up, i.e. with the money frozen for some time, pay little, around 2%. Often you have to be a new customer or transfer new funds. The other way is to direct savings towards management such as investment funds, another major channel of income in the banking world.