Bpm bank size i current account costs. After months of upward adjustments to spending on current accounts, driven by the ECB's monetary tightening to curb inflation, the banks are starting to cut some items. And Banco Bpm leads the way with a letter written on 31 December 2022 to a customer, in which he warns of the "improving change in conditions". In an interview with MF Milano Finanza, the CEO of the Milanese group, Giuseppe Castagna, stated that "an excessive increase in interest rates does not help anyone, especially families and small and medium-sized enterprises".
The document mentions the Deposit Facility Rate, the existing rates (now at 2%), and a previous document dated 24 September 2020, when the bank ensured that it would cancel the increase introduced on periodic expenses "effective 1 April 2023".
Meanwhile, the title Banco Bpm travels in negative (-0,83%). On Tuesday 10 January, it traded at 3,59 euros for a capitalization of 5,45 billion while the Ftse Mib lost 0,24%.
Why does Banco Bpm cut costs on current accounts?
Interest rate hikes don't always hurt your account. While mortgage rates immediately increased, adapting to the ECB's tightening, the costs of current accounts remained at their highest levels.
In reality, if high inflation is a recent phenomenon, current account costs have been rising for several years. Especially in 2020: in that year, several banks notified customers of a whole series of cost increases and commissions on current accounts and deposits justified by the era of zero and sub-zero rates. As well as Banco Bpm.
This is because, explains MF-Milano Finanza, banks in the current phase have to defend their balance sheets, under pressure due to the negative trend of the market and the surge in theinflation. Increasing interest rates on current accounts would bring no benefit, on the contrary it would be an extra cost that would corrode the profitability. For investors, higher bills entail a double cost: on the one hand, the price of parking imposed by the bank, on the other, inflation, which in the absence of remuneration corrodes even more the cash deposited on accounts. And after a year like 2022, in which both shares and bonds have fallen, Italian savers are afraid to go back to investing.
