Enria (BCE) warns that banking taxes must take into account provisions

MADRID, 11 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The president of the Supervisory Council of the European Central Bank (ECB), Andrea Enria, has warned that the special taxes on banks that some European countries are raising must take into account the provisions so that they have the appropriate incentives.

"My impression is that sometimes these taxes are directed at income in general of interest or commissions and fees without taking into account the provisions, so in terms of incentives, they may not be exactly adequate," said the Italian. during his speech at an event organized by the Institute of International Finance (IIF).

The head of supervision of the ECB has indicated, however, that he does not yet have an opinion on specific proposals because the ECB has not formed an opinion on the measures proposed by the countries.

According to Enria, the macroeconomic context is going to make banks have to record provisions on their books in the coming months, so if taxes are directed at gross income, "it can be misleading and a wrong incentive."

The Government of Spain plans a new temporary tax of 4.8% on the interest and net commissions of financial entities with income of more than 800 million euros for the years 2022 and 2022. The expected collection is 1,500 million of euros.

During her speech, Enria expressed that her opinion of the banks is "very positive" despite the current macroeconomic situation, due to their resilience, their capital levels, the quality of their assets and the positive effect that the increase will have on the accounts of interest rates.

The supervisor has indicated that European banking market valuations "are very depressed" due to the impact of the war and the energy shock, despite the fact that investor sentiment at the beginning of the year was positive. Enria expects that as these problems are tackled, valuations will grow higher.

With regard to technological innovation such as crypto or artificial intelligence, the Italian has recognized that at first he had a "segregationist" position, advocating leaving these high-risk activities out of the banking business.

However, as the technologies "are here to stay and are going to bring a lot of change", supervisors need to find a way to let banks experiment with them "in a protected and prudent environment".