Why be so surprised? If the cost of money in the euro area went from zero to 4.50% in the space of twelve months (July 2022 to September 2023), the price was worth it. And that is why in Italy family spending on maintaining a bank account continues to increase. The information was released by the Bank of Italy, which published yesterday the results of the survey carried out in 2023 on household current account expenses. Yes, keeping money in the bank has become a luxury. Almost. In 2022, the cost of managing a traditional bank account (i.e., accessible both through the branch and through home banking methods) amounted to 104 euros, an increase compared to the value recorded in the previous year (94.7 euros). The increase, explains the Bank of Italy, is linked to the growth in fixed and variable expenses. For the former, the increase, equal to 5.9 euros, is mainly due to base rates. Variable expenses grew by 3.4 euros, mainly due to increased customer activity, while commissions remained practically unchanged. The Palazzo Koch estimate does not include spending on postal current accounts. Online bank accounts, intended for consumers who intend to carry out transactions mainly over the internet, are also excluded. And in fact in 2022 the cost of managing an online account was equal to 33.7 euros, an increase of 0.7 euros, says Bankitalia, compared to the previous year.
Attention, the Via Nazionale calculations stop in December 2022, when there were eight more months of increases left. Which is not good news, because when the time comes to lift the veil on current account costs in 2023, it will be painful. Returning to Bank of Italy estimates, for accounts linked to current account credit opening contracts, the commission for making funds available was on average equal to 1.7% of the credit granted, as in the previous year. The average rapid investigation commission applied to overdrafts decreased from 16.9 to 16.4 euros.
«A disproportionate increase, an unjustified jump of 9 euros and 30 cents, with a price increase of 9.8%, well above the average inflation rate, which in 2022 was equal to 8.1% for both the Nic index and for the It was without tobacco ” thundered Massimiliano Dona, president of the National Consumers Union. «What is most unacceptable, in particular, is the increase in fixed expenses which grew by 5.9 euros in 2022 and which had already increased by 2.8 euros in 2021 and 4.3 euros in 2020, costs that weigh indiscriminately even on those who have low operations and carry out a low number of operations”.
Source: IL Tempo

Roy Brown is a renowned economist and author at The Nation View. He has a deep understanding of the global economy and its intricacies. He writes about a wide range of economic topics, including monetary policy, fiscal policy, international trade, and labor markets.