Covid effect, more savings and less debt for families

With the pandemic taking its toll on the economy, Italian households have rediscovered savings, drastically reducing all forms of debt. Last year, according to research by the Italian independent banking association (FABI), reserves increased by 5.6%, while the growth of mortgages reached 3.5%.

Uncertainty and distrust have led to an increase in “the propensity to save, and a lessening of the tendency of families to borrow to buy a house,” explained Lando Maria Siloni, General Secretary of Fabi.

An additional nearly €60 billion remained on checking accounts and bank deposits from May 2020 to May of this year, while total loans granted by banks for home purchases, in the same period, increased by only 13 billion.

In total, Italian home banks rose from 1070 billion to 1130 billion, while the balance of home loans increased from 385 billion in May 2020 to 399 billion in May 2021. The positive news arrives along with the outstanding installments (bad loans): the amount of arrears, in fact , decreased by more than two billion, and fell to 11 billion.

Over the past 12 months, Silioni added, “the fear for the future, and of course all the restrictions related to the health emergencies that have largely resulted from consumption and air-conditioned tourism, catering, large-scale distribution, and retailing” has affected behavior.

The analysis also shows that from 2016 to 2021 mortgages grew 9.9% overall, an increase of 35 billion, while savings rose 23%, an increase of 211 billion.

With regard to savings, the total funds deposited in the bank in the past five years increased from 919.1 billion in 2016 to 1130.3 billion in 2021, with a growth rate of 23%.

The decrease in consumption and the tendency to save, together with the discontinuation of old loans granted by banks thanks to a regulation issued in March 2020, has ensured, in the past 12 months, the regularity of loan repayments: in fact, bad debts have been reduced by 15.1% (minus 2 billion ) to reach a total of 11.6 billion.

(Unioneonline / F)

© All Rights Reserved