Accounts in the red for the first time since 2007, but wages still go up. For Bankitalia, 2023 ended with a gross profit of 7.1 billion euros in the red. The losses were covered by years of provisions and funds accumulated with “prudent principles”, which ultimately resulted in a positive net profit of 815 million euros. Despite the negative numbers, however, from the governor to the general vice-presidents the salaries have increased, for the first time since 2014. A decision taken by the former governor Ignazio Visco last July, before being replaced by Fabio Panetta, «in light of the the breadth of the functions performed by the Bank of Italy and the comparison with the remunerations received by the top bodies of the other central banks of the Eurosystem”. And so the annual salaries were revised upwards: for the governor 480 thousand euros (they were 450 thousand, +6.67%), for the general director 430 thousand (they were 400 thousand, +7.5%), for the deputy general managers 350 thousand each (they were 315 thousand, +11.11%).
The Koch Palace budget has been weighed down over the past year by the restrictive monetary policy of the European Central Bank. The Eurotower itself remained a “victim” of the rate increases wanted by Christine Lagarde and the management, a necessary measure to cope with the increase in prices and combat inflation. After ten consecutive increases since July 2022, the ECB has now left rates unchanged for the fourth consecutive time, supported by Eurozone data and estimates. For this reason, the governor Fabio Panetta is confident that as early as 2025 the Bank of Italy will return to “gross profit”, i.e. before the coverage of the risk fund which absorbed part of the losses in 2023. A fund which, thanks to the more than positive results of recent years, has reached 35 billion euros. The gross loss for 2023 had been widely predicted, taking into account the forecasts for 2023 which foreshadowed the decisions that the ECB Governing Council would then take. The rate increases have «determined an increase in the cost of budget liabilities (deposits to banks) against which there has not been a corresponding increase in the return on monetary policy activities», it was explained during the meeting at Palazzo Koch, and the “significant gross loss” due to the contraction of the interest margin was a phenomenon “also common to the other banks” of the Eurosystem. But “the risks to price stability have been reduced and the conditions are being created to start monetary easing”, added Panetta, underlining how the BCA’s monetary policy is “compressing demand and contributing, together with the fall in energy, to the rapid decrease in inflation”.
The numbers for 2023
In 2023 there was a budget contraction of 223 billion compared to 2022, which brought the total to 1,253 billion euros. A contraction that will continue because the repayments of the TLTRO-III operations continue and the renewals of the expiring securities are running out. Refinancing operations fell from 356 to 150 billion, monetary policy securities decreased to 667 billion of which 600 in Italian government bonds and bank deposits dropped to 57 billion. As we said, Palazzo Koch recorded a gross profit at a loss – for the first time since 2007 – of 7.1 billion euros, partly covered by the risk fund (5.6 billion), partly by tax recovery (2, 3 billion), leading to a net profit of 815 million. Thanks to the intervention of the funds set aside in recent years, the loss will not weigh on the state coffers, which will actually receive 615 million euros albeit a decrease of 1 billion and 61 million compared to 2022. Over the last ten years the Bank of Italy has allocated to the State, between dividends and taxes, resources of over 50 billion euros. In the last 5 years alone, dividend profits for the State were 21.6 billion plus 4 billion in taxes. In the last year, with 112 exits and 240 hirings, Bankitalia’s employees have risen to 6,968 units, an increase of 128 resources.
