MILAN (Reuters) - Italian financial institutions have opted en masse to forego an extraordinary tax the government imposed on the sector in August, making use of a clause Rome introduced in September to allow lenders to boost cash reserves instead of paying the levy.
The main lenders have put away at least 4.5 billion euros ($4.8 billion) in response to the measure, or 2.5 times what the government would have pocketed from the tax.
Italy in August announced a surprise 40% tax on banks' net interest margin (NIM), later giving lenders the option to boost reserves by an amount equivalent to two-and-a-half times the tax.
Below is a table summarising what the main banks have disclosed regarding the tax when reporting third-quarter earnings.
All figures in millions of euros.
Windfall tax Non distributable
(estimated reserves
amount)
INTESA SANPAOLO 828 2,096
UNICREDIT 440 1,100
BANCO BPM 152.4 381
MPS 125.1 312.7
BPER 126.2 315.4
CREDEM 38 95
POP SONDRIO 42.8 107
FINECOBANK 12.2 30.5
MEDIOLANUM 26.9 67.4
BANCA GENERALI 10.6 26.6
TOTAL
1,802.18 4,531.6
($1 = 0.9346 euros)