According to the Corriere Della Sera newspaper on Friday, the European Central Bank (ECB) is getting ready to write to Italy to express concerns over the government’s windfall tax on bank earnings.
Rome’s last-week announcement of the tax without first notifying the Bank of Italy or the ECB as required by EU regulations will be criticized in the letter, the newspaper reported without identifying any sources.
An ECB spokesperson told a source on Friday that President Christine Lagarde has received an official request for consultation over the proposal from Italy’s Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti and that the ECB will express its opinion “in due course”.
In the letter to be sent out in “a couple of weeks” at the most, the ECB will express concerns about the tax’s potential to undermine Italy’s banks and economy in general. This is according to a story in the Corriere della Sera.
Similar fees imposed on banks in Lithuania and Spain were the subject of recent ECB comments, which cautioned that they could weaken lenders’ resilience to economic shocks and limit their capacity to extend credit.
