(Finance) – “The banking combinations took place within a framework of constant strong competition. In proportion to the populations, more banking combinations in Italy than in other countries of the rest of Europe. THE consolidation processes must also develop internationallyespecially in Europe, to encourage the growth of banking entities that are competitive with the American and Asian giants “. Antonio Patuelli, president of ABI, in its report to the Annual Assembly of the Italian Banking Association. In this sense, it is important that the construction of the Banking Union continue, creating Single European Texts with identical banking, financial and tax laws and with proportionality of bureaucratic burdens, he added.
The growth of NPLs
“Even in the presence of the pandemic, banks have overall continued to strengthen their assets and liquidity and reduce non-performing loans which have not exploded also due to the presence of moratoriums that must be reintroduced with the prolongation of the pandemic and with the effects of the war Russian-Ukrainian, “he explained in his speech.
“THE Non-performing loans can start growing again – added Patuelli – in spite of the constant activities of the banks to reduce them: business crises may grow which still need to be accompanied by emergency finance measures which also lengthen the duration of the loans taken, to give new opportunities for recovery “.
The bank bailouts
The number one of the Italian Banking Association also addressed the issue of institutions in crisis. “THE bailouts of banks in serious trouble they must be preventive if possible, to avoid greater risks and costswith the intervention of the Interbank Deposit Protection Funds, as happened in Italy up to 2015, before the “resolution” of the four banks, and as it became possible again after the “double compliant” ruling of the Court and the European Court agreed with Italy, recognizing the private nature of the Interbank Deposit Protection Fund “.
Investment incentives
According to Patuelli, “to attract savings towards investments in Italy it is necessary to continue with tax reforms: the strengthening of the PIRs goes in this right direction, but this reform is not enough to attract the huge parked liquidity”. Furthermore, “it is necessary to reduce the tax burden on stable and non-speculative investments to trigger a more robust virtuous circuit to favor the transformation of liquidity into productive investments that are burdened by double taxation on company profits and dividends “.
The European rules
“Economic, Banking and Capital Markets Unions must grow without new burdens for banks and with homogeneity of the tax burden in the Member States, to achieve equality of competitive conditions for companies in the EU, when the different public debts are already affecting spreads that have consequences on competition “, he told the Annual Assembly.
“The Banking Union – according to Patuelli – has developed much more in the growth of supervisory activities than in the unification of the other rules.Banking union must progress without forcing and without tearing, if there are no privileged or penalized states: common rules are needed for the growth of all, on a competitive level. We agree with President Enria: we need to complete the Banking Union “in a sensible and pragmatic way”.
In another passage he stressed that “it is necessary to reflect and not to tighten the rules of Basel 3+think before the pandemic and the war “and that” legal certainty, even prospective, and identical rules and the same supervision for financial transactions carried out by different legal entities need “.