After the decision of the ECB’s Governing Council to raise the reference rates by 75 basis points, the banking sector celebrates this support for the profitability of the sector at Piazza Affari: at the time of writing this article, Banca Intesa recorded + 4.62% in the session today (best stock of the day in the Italian index), Banco BPM + 2.57%, Unicredit + 1.84%, BPER Banca + 3%, Banca Generali + 2.26%, Banca Mediolanum + 2.82%, FinecoBank + 4.57%. Indeed, the ECB expects to further raise interest rates in upcoming meetings to moderate demand and reduce the risk of a persistent increase in expected inflation.
Furthermore, “the entry into a scenario of positive and gradually rising rates expands the safety buffer to deal with a potentially severe macro deterioration”, commented Equita Sim analysts.
Specifically, according to Equita SIM, Intesa Sanpaolo is the bank with the greatest positive exposure in the event of a rise in interest rates. The Milanese SIM calculates that, for every 100 basis points (+ 1%) of the Euribor increase, there are 2.3 billion euros more in interest margins per year.