The 2026 Budget has arrived in the Senate and, on the day of the hearings in the Budget Committee, the first criticisms also arrived from the banking world. According to the ABI (Italian Banking Association), the interventions of the Budget law regarding tax deductibility will lead to lost revenues of 800 million euros by 2030, while the planned measures will generate an additional burden of 9.6 billion euros in four years.
According to Giancarlo Giorgetti, the maneuver is “a pinch” for the banks, which expect to earn around 44 billion euros in 2025. Another clash with minister Antonio Tajani, who considers it unfair to “harass the banks” because it risks frightening the markets and harming citizens. For Matteo Salvini, however, credit institutions should “give something more”, also to send a positive message.
Meanwhile, for Fitch, the maneuver “can be done” because the impact for 2026 and subsequent years will be limited and will not put the solidity of the banking system or its profits at risk.
Abi’s complaints about the 2026 budget
Complains Marco Elio Rottigni, general director of Abi, who brought the banks’ point of view to the Senate Budget Commission hearing. In his speech, Rottigni declared that the new rules on tax deductibility will lead to lower revenues of 800 million euros by 2030.
The estimate comes from two factors, he explains:
The deferral of a part of the deductibility quotas foreseen for the 2027 tax period of the stock of write-downs and losses on credits, as well as a limitation on the deductibility of tax losses and ACE surpluses on the higher taxable amounts for the 2027 tax period.
Then the similar intervention which is also foreseen for the tax period up to 31 December 2026 (at 45%), provided for in the 2025 Budget Law, with the deferral of the deductions of the quotas cited by Rottigni.
For Abi’s general manager:
It is also worth highlighting this type of withdrawal, which determines a cost for banks that can be measured as a lower interest margin due to the failure to use liquidity. If this liquidity had been invested by subscribing to public debt securities, it would have generated financial revenues of 800 million euros.
More tension between Tajani and Salvini
The sides have not changed. On the one hand there is Minister Giorgetti, who considers the measures for banks to be limited and sustainable; Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini is on the same line, going so far as to declare that credit institutions “should give even more and contribute to paying the police, hiring policemen and carabinieri, improving their salaries and pensions”. These statements seek to respond to the demands of the police unions and point the finger at the banks.
Antonio Tajani, on the other hand, is critical and still issues warnings after the compromise. According to the Foreign Minister
It is right that banks and insurance companies make a contribution, but it is unfair to harass them.
The risk, he explains, is that of
scare the markets and cause harm to citizens.
The answer, meanwhile, comes from the international rating agency Fitch, which declared that the impact of the 2026 Budget will be
limited for both 2026 and subsequent years (and) will in no way jeopardize the solidity of the banks nor their earnings.
