Italy candidate to host new EU anti-money laundering authority – Corriere.it

The one created in the last two years defines it as a “monetary illusion”. With the pandemic, household savings have accumulated thanks to the restrictive measures that have reduced consumption, and therefore now serve as a buffer. But Francesco Profumo, president of Acri, the association representing the banking foundations believes that this is a long-term “bankruptcy” policy. Because long-term liquidity loses value and runaway inflation, now double-digit, returns a tendency to “evaporate savings”. But the key concept, which Profumo follows several times, is that the very strong increase in prices translates into “a terrible class differential”, introducing “an inequitable balance sheet”. “Spending on energy and food, the prices of which have risen the most, weighs heavily on households with the lowest incomes, while households with the highest incomes spend the largest share of their incomes on services, whose prices have risen least “.

The average increase in inflation therefore has a different impact on social classes. This translates into «an average increase of 7.6% for the high incomes and of 11.6% for the lowest incomes. Then keeping the savings firm and liquid on current accounts, Profumo complains, becomes a short-sighted choice, because “it prevents it from becoming a driving force for the development of the country”. Analyzing the behavior of the few who decide to invest, it emerges that only 5% of Italian household savings are invested in our country, against 14% in Germany and 34% in France ». The opening of the World Savings Day, however, opened with the message of the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, ultimate custodian – it is written in the Constitution – of household savings. He is keen to claim this role, to assign to the “defense of the value of income and savings against the growth of inflation, due to the surge in the cost of energy and other basic necessities, therefore appears more than ever a task primary to which the Republic is bound by the Constitution ».

Similar reasoning by Antonio Patuelli, number one of ABI, the Italian banking association, which claims the thesis of «responsibly invested savings not for speculative purposes is essential for resilience to the energy crisis and inflation». «Greater efforts are needed to attract (never to force) the responsible investments of the savings of Italians who are already too burdened by multiple and significant taxation on income from work and capital and then on the yields of savings itself – explains Patuelli -. The returns on savings investments, which also involve risks, should not be confused with risk-free annuities. We ask that medium and long-term savings investments in Italy be taxed less than short or very short-term speculative transactions ».

For Ignazio Visco, governor of the Bank of Italy, «In the last two years, the reduction in the ratio between debt and output has benefited from the recovery of the economy, which was faster than expected, and was favored by an increase in prices that was certainly as little desired as it was broad and prolonged. But today we can only hope and seek a rapid reduction in the inflation “tax”, for the stability of the economy, for the protection of savings and for the relief of those most affected by the exceptional increase in energy costs. It will be necessary to be careful not to repeat the mistakes of forty and more years ago when the persistence of inflation due to the vain chase between prices and wages was associated with many years of excessive deficits, with the ultimate consequence of the financial and currency crisis. these months the thirtieth anniversary ”. Therefore – pending the budget maneuver currently being defined – “the margins for the disbursement of aid to families and businesses will probably be much more limited than in the last two years,” confesses Visco. But it is necessary to avoid that “inflation is too high for too long”.

But the wait was all for the first public intervention of the new Minister of the Treasury, Giancarlo Giorgettiwho recalled how the new government will do its utmost to protect household savings and businesses’ and that Italy is preparing the candidacy to host the headquarters of the new ‘European Anti-Money Laundering Supervisory Authority’ ( the Anti-Money Laundering Authority, Amla).

The minister recorded that «the latest inflation rate available in the euro area has reached 10 per cent, while in Italy, pending consolidated data, in October it is even reaching 12.8%. These are high levels but in line with those of other advanced economies. Such a rise in inflation it translates into an “overheating” of prices which affects savings in many ways. First, it reduces its quantum following the increase in final consumption expenditure and the consequent decrease in household disposable income. Secondly, it erodes its value over time because the purchasing power of the sums held in the form of deposits slowly decreases over time ». For this reason – Giorgetti assures – «we are evaluating how to improve the measures to support the economy in line with the evolution of the temporary framework on state aid, and, in particular, the public guarantees on loans to businesses. The Guarantee Fund for SMEs has already been strengthened, the new measure managed by SACE, the so-called SupporItalia, has been launched and the trade credit reinsurance tool, already effectively used during the Covid emergency, has been renewed ».