The Italian Government has approved a 40% windfall tax on banks to fund mortgage relief for first-time buyers and make tax cuts.
Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said Italian households and businesses were bearing an unfair burden.
Salvini told a press conference: “One only has to look at the banks’ first-half 2023 profits, also the result of the European Central Bank’s rate hikes, to realise that we are not talking about a few millions, but we are talking one can assume of billions.”
Salvini said the 40% levy, which looks set to amount to several billion euros, will only apply to profits in 2023.
Opposition parties in the UK have been calling for Government support for mortgage holders but Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his Chancellor Jeremy Hunt have both ruled out such a move.
Banks in the UK have also been under mounting pressure for not passing on increased interest rates to savers.
This has led the FCA to warn that banks with the lowest savings rates will face ‘robust action’ if they do not pass on rate rises.
