CERNOBBIO, Italy (Reuters) – The chairman of Intesa Sanpaolo (OTC:) sees no cause for alarm over the impact of the windfall tax on Italian banks and said it would probably cost Italy’s biggest bank less than 1 billion euros ($1.08 billion).
“There will be an effect but I don’t think it will have alarming consequences because Italian banks are robust and the important thing is that the market is competitive,” Gian Maria Gros-Pietro told reporters at the European House Ambrosetti business forum in Italy on Friday.
Gros-Pietro later told reporters that the bill was likely to be under a billion euros for Intesa, adding that a more precise estimate could not be given until the windfall tax has been approved by parliament.
The windfall tax, which wrongfooted bank investors when announced in August, is a one-off measure targeting gains from higher interest rates. The government subsequently clarified that the tax would not amount to more than 0.1% of a bank’s total assets.
The Treasury expects to draw less than 3 billion euros from the measure, sources have said.
Gros-Pietro said dividends would inevitably be affected by any impact of the tax on profit but that Intesa investors would still be well rewarded.
($1 = 0.9252 euros)
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