THE WEALTH OF ITALIAN FAMILIES, The ace in the hands of the Treasury
Households' propensity to save fell to 2010 (12,15 percentage points less) in 1,4 according to a long-term trend: a drop of four percentage points was observed in the last decade. Having said that, the concerns of S&P's, which has linked the warning on Italian public debt to a decline in household treasuries, seem exaggerated, according to the data collected by the Bank of Italy. In fact, the net financial wealth of households remained stable: 2,6 times disposable income, a value slightly lower than that of Anglo-Saxon countries (2,9 times) but above the EU average (2 times).
A HERITAGE OF BRICKS
Above all, however, it should be noted that the net wealth of Italian households is 8,2 times available. In comparison with the year 68, the weight of real assets with respect to financial wealth increased by ten percentage points to 2010%. However, investments in financial assets increased in XNUMX.
The investment map is broken down as follows: a) purchases of 12 billion euro of postal savings instruments; b) 24 billion lire in life insurance policies, above all of the traditional type with guarantees on the minimum return. c) The share of insurance and pension reserves, including pension funds, on total assets has increased continuously over the last 15 years up to 18,2% but the aggregate still remains lower than the value recorded for the euro area (30,2 per cent), mainly due to the limited development of supplementary pensions.
Compared to 2009, the net purchases of instruments of banking origin stopped. After three years of heavy investment, sales of bank bonds outnumbered purchases by nearly $10 billion. Overall, the share of financial assets held in banking instruments decreased from 28,2 to 27,7 per cent. Divestments in public securities also continued (-4 billion). The household portfolio continues to stand out from the rest of Europe due to the high percentage of bonds present, above all of a banking nature: 19,8% against an average of 7,5.
Net purchases of shares and other equity investments amounted to 48 billion, a slight increase compared to the 2009 figure; however, the share in the portfolio decreased to 21 per cent as a result of the decline in share prices.
AND THEIR (FEW) DEBTS
Household financial debts reached 66 per cent of disposable income (Figure 14.2), a figure lower than the average figure for the euro area (99 per cent) and Anglo-Saxon countries (over 100 per cent). Since 2004, the ratio of financial debt to household income has grown by almost 21 percentage points, 7 points more than observed in the euro area. The increase regarded all the various forms of lending. The difference with the average of the countries of the area in terms of consumer credit has disappeared: at the end of 2010 the ratio between consumer credit and the disposable income of Italian households was approximately 11 per cent.
ITALIANS GET BACK TO MORTGAGES
The historically low level of interest rates led to a strengthening of demand by consumer households for loans for the purchase of homes, which grew by 3,4 per cent on an annual basis; in the first months of 2011 the pace of expansion increased further (4,0 per cent in March). In 2010, other loans other than consumer credit also increased substantially (8,5 per cent), above all as a result of the growth in non-specific mortgages; this trend eased in the first few months of 2011 (6,0 per cent in March). After declining for two consecutive years, lending for house purchase increased by 12 per cent year-on-year to €57 billion.
According to data from the Territorial Agency, in 2010 the purchase and sale of residential properties were substantially stable, while those which took place using a mortgage increased by approximately 9 per cent; the latter accounted for more than 40 per cent of total sales during the year. Mortgage disbursements were influenced by recourse to subrogations and substitutions by customers looking for better contractual conditions: the incidence of subrogations on disbursements was equal to 13 percent (16 percent in 2009); the weight of replacements was stable at around 3 per cent. The renegotiations of the conditions of the contract with one's bank, which do not involve a new stipulation, involved 2 per cent of existing mortgages. In 2010, on average, more than 80 per cent of new mortgages were granted at variable rates, double the figure recorded for the euro area.
VULNERABLE FAMILIES BUT NOT TOO MUCH
Despite the doubling of the incidence of contracts which envisage a maximum limit on the level of interest rates and of those which allow for the lengthening of the duration or the temporary suspension of payments without additional costs (in 2010 respectively equal to 23 and 26 per cent) , the risks deriving from a possible rise in interest rates still remain partly with households, who are not always aware of it. Based on IBF data, a fifth of households that have a mortgage is unable to distinguish between the different types of contract and adequately assess the associated interest rate risk.
Banks continued to be selective in granting loans. The average ratio between loans granted and the value of the property (loan to value), which before the crisis was close to 65 per cent, decreased further in 2010, reaching 61 per cent. In particular, in 2010 the incidence on mortgage disbursements of those with a loan to value ratio of more than 80 per cent decreased (5 per cent, compared to 8 per cent in 2009).
Despite the extremely weak dynamics of household incomes, the report states, "the marked reduction in interest rates and the measures adopted in the two-year period 2009-2010 in favor of borrowing households helped to avoid an increase in the debt burden relative to income . It is estimated that the debt service for home mortgages, equal to about 17 per cent of the income of families who had a mortgage at the end of 2008, decreased in the following two years; the trend is less favorable for households with low incomes due to the worse employment and wage dynamics: 2,4 per cent of Italian households, around 600.000 households, have a total debt service of more than 30 per cent of income. Of these, more than half belong to the lowest income quartile and are particularly vulnerable to a drop in income or rate increases associated with changes in interest rates; these households hold just over a tenth of the sector's total debt.
Until last March, the borrower households that had benefited from the suspension of mortgage payments for at least 12 months numbered around 43.000 households, with a residual mortgage debt of 5 billion, just under 2 per cent of outstanding amounts.
