Savings at the center of the post-Covid world. In a scenario driven by the economic uncertainty triggered by the pandemic, the propensity to save, not only of Italians, has grown enormously. According to Bank of Italy surveys, between the end of 2019 and July 2020, household deposits in current accounts of Italian banks would have increased by over 36 billion euros. A lot of liquidity which, however, remains "stationary" to the detriment of the economic recovery.
Investing this mass of liquidity would provide a great stimulus to the real economy, i.e. the country's productive capacity. However, "Italians have always been fantastic savers, but not necessarily great allocators," he said Saverio Perissinotto, CEO of Eurizon, on the occasion of the conference "The "R" factor in support of the post-Covid world" during the event R-Evolution by Assogestioni-FocusRisparmio.
In a financial world, such as the current one, characterized by zero or even negative interest rates, "the best choice - declared Perissinotto - is to move towards a more diversified asset allocation and with a higher risk or implied volatility component" .
Not an easy step given that “Italian savers fear the volatility and often confuse it with the risk – continued the CEO of Eurizon -. We asset managers know how to manage risk, offering product solutions that respond to the different propensities of savers. But I think the creation of a pact between us who do production, the world of large-scale distribution and the regulator who creates the conditions is fundamental to transform the Italian saver into a conscious investor".
This is where the resources deployed by Europe come into play, such as the Recovery Fund, the Sure and the MES. These can provide an important stimulus to the real economy, "if well directed", and with positive results also on the markets because "the Stock Exchanges rise if there is economic growth. It is clear that we need to prepare projects that will kick-start a driving force of the real economy that is absolutely relevant” – concluded Perissinotto.
It is a question of relaunching the country's economy by bringing private savings closer to investments in the real economy. And at the same time, the retail customer must be protected. Banca Generali is moving in this direction, as underlined by Gian Maria Mossa, CEO of Banca Generali during the annual ABI conference.
“To encourage this, we have relaunched the theme of savings aimed at accumulation plans and focused on new investment strategies such as the AIF and the Eltif of our container BG4Real”- underlined the manager.
More and more relevant is the theme of sustainability. “In a few years, everything branded ESG will surpass traditional proposals – continued Mossa-. In this sense, banks have an enormous business opportunity in this period – by now 50% of deposits today derive from ESG investments”.
Banca Generali's CEO concluded by talking about the figure of the consultant and how, despite the fact that Covid has taught us the importance of digitalisation, "the recovery of human relationships and dialogue is fundamental".
