A wide-ranging discussion, including banks, taxes and economic policy. A few days before the majority summit that will define the next budget law (scheduled for 13 October), Giancarlo Giorgetti has returned to explain his vision on the relationship between the State, credit institutions and businesses.
From the stage in Tuscany, in Livorno the economy minister anticipated the key issues of the Maneuver: the tax cut for the middle class and fiscal peace, two issues he has discussed extensively recently.
The minister then touched on another main issue, namely that of the possible extraordinary contribution from the banks. His words come while Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is working on a 16 billion maneuver, focused on Irpef, birth rate and pensions, and the League insists on the need to “make room” for an economy they call “real”, such as tax cuts and scrapping.
But let’s stick to Giorgetti and the banks, for whom:
The banks make mega profits and for me as economy minister the banks must go back to being banks.
State-guaranteed loans and record profits: Giorgetti’s complaint
According to Giorgetti, the banks’ task must remain that of collecting savings and supporting the productive economy, avoiding overly financialized business models.
The bank was created to take savings, deposits and lend them to the real economy and in this way it also does a meritorious activity. Today, many profits arise from passive wealth management, rather than from providing credit to businesses and families.
The minister noted that a significant part of the financing is granted only in the presence of public guarantees.
Today, among other things, many loans are granted only if there is a guarantee from the State, which must guarantee 80% of the loan that is given.
A system, he said, in which the risks remain public and the gains private.
When there is interest to be taken, they take it, when there is a loss, the State has to take it.
Extraordinary contribution from banks: the minister’s proposal
In 2024, Italian banks made staggering profits, driven by skyrocketing interest rates and increasingly generous fees. But technically we cannot talk about extra profits: the extraordinary tax of 2023, the one designed to target out-of-scale earnings, was not proposed again and everything ended up in ordinary taxation.
And this is where Giorgetti comes in. The minister invites responsible collaboration: those who have made money, he says, must give something back.
In fact, regarding a possible extraordinary levy on banks, Giorgetti invited us not to talk about a punitive measure but about shared responsibility:
When a systemic effort is made it is right that everyone makes a part of this effort and those who have the possibility to do it more do it more.
He added that this is not an ideological measure, but a common sense one.
It seems like a simple and common sense thing to me, I think many citizens think so too.
Economic maneuver 2026: space for Irpef cuts and fiscal peace
Anticipating the majority summit, Giorgetti confirmed that he had found budgetary margins to include the Irpef cut and a new fiscal peace.
There is space to reduce taxes for the middle class and also for fiscal peace.
The objective, he explains, is to ease the pressure on those suffocated by tax debts:
If we give breathing space and opportunities to those who are swamped today by tax bills, perhaps we won’t kill the business and economic activity can continue to contribute.
Giorgetti’s is almost an appeal: no more miraculous bailouts and rainy bonuses, we need pragmatism, the kind that lets businesses breathe without sending public finances into a state of apnea.
