Current accounts, here's where you make the most money in banking

With 5,000 euro in your bank account you earn 18.2 euro a year in Trento and Bolzano, 15 euro in Florence, 13 euro in Rome, 11 euro in Milan and Perugia. The same sum, on the other hand, yields just 6.5 euro in Naples, 7 euro in Trieste, 8 euro in Catanzaro, Potenza, Genoa and Aosta. Slightly luckier are the account holders in Turin with annual 'takings' of 8.5 euro. Banks in Ancona and Cagliari ensure 10 euro, half a euro more than Bari, Bologna, Campobasso and Palermo, which stand at 9.5 euro. At a round 9 euro are Venice and Pescara. The interest charged by banks on the 1,151 billion euro deposited in current accounts - although particularly low, despite the increase in the cost of money brought by the European Central Bank to 4.5% between 2022 and 2023 with 10 rises in 14 months - is not all the same in the country. There are wide territorial and regional divergences in the yields that banks recognise on their customers' 'piggy banks'.

The analysis by Fabi's research office shows that, from North to South, there are not the same opportunities for earning the savings of Italian families: the national average of the interest rate charged by banks to customers for a current account of up to 50,000 euro - at the end of 2023 - is 0.21%, but in the 20 regions of the country there are very different levels. It matters little that the regions south of the capital boast 25% of the entire country's liquidity portfolio, because there is no equal treatment for all customers, even when it comes to savings. It may be due to risk or to the 'goodness' of those who deposit, it is a fact that the liquidity rewarded and appreciated by banks is that deposited in Northern and Central Italy. The best yields are to be found in Trentino Alto Adige, but it is the Centre where the average bank rate on current accounts is the highest in the Peninsula, at 0.27%. At 0.20% are the Islands and the North West, just below the North East with 0.19%: more detached and heavily penalised, on the other hand, are the southern regions with a value of 0.16%. More in detail, in the central regions, the figures are as follows: Tuscany 0.30%, Umbria 0.22%, Marche 0.20%, Lazio 0.26%. In the derby between islands, Sardinia, with 0.20%, narrowly beats Sicily (0.19%). In the four North-West regions, then, the best data is that of Lombardy with 0.22%, Piedmont is further away with 0.17%, while Valle d'Aosta and Liguria are paired at 0.16%. In the North East, the national record of Trentino Alto Adige stands out with 0.36%, a much higher figure than Emilia Romagna (0.19%), Veneto (0.18%) and Friuli Venezia Giulia (0.14%).

It is the South that suffers most from the labour market, with unemployment three times higher than in the northern regions: a girl aged between 15 and 24 in Trentino Alto Adige has one chance in ten (9.8%) of remaining unemployed, while a girl of her age in Calabria has more than one chance in two (51.6%). Fabi secretary general Lando Maria Sileoni: 'Between bank rates and work-related issues, families in the south of Italy, which are more penalised, are forced to make greater efforts than those in the north. As the bankers' union's figures show, among the six regions of Southern Italy, the area that is on the whole less fortunate in terms of returns on accounts, the worst figure is that of Campania with 0.13%; at 0.16% are Calabria and Basilicata, at 0.18% Abruzzo, and at 0.19% the tandem made up of Molise and Puglia. Remaining with the territorial analysis, and returning to the returns front, we find that those who live in Campania earn, with an average annual balance of 5 thousand euro, almost 12 euro less than those who live in Trentino Alto Adige. Compared to Trentino, seven regions leave more than 10 euro on the ground. Double-digit losses also for those living in Friuli Venezia Giulia (11.2 euro) and in Valle d'Aosta, Liguria, Basilicata and Calabria (10.2 euro). In Piedmont, the distance from the top of the ranking is 9.7 euro, while it is 9.2 euro in Veneto and Abruzzo. The inhabitants of four regions - Emilia Romagna, Molise, Apulia and Sicily - are 8.7 euros away from the top. By contrast, the gap 'suffered' by those living in Lombardy and Umbria is 7.2 euro. The two regions closest to the Trentino record are Tuscany (3.2 euro) and Lazio (5.2 euro).

But how much money is in current accounts and which regions are the richest in liquidity? At the end of 2023, the total balance of Italian households' current accounts stood at EUR 1,151.1 billion, down by EUR 43.5 billion compared to the end of 2022: in one year, therefore, there has been a 3.6% drop, which can be attributed, on the one hand, to inflation and rising prices, which have led households to use their reserves to cope with the high cost of living; on the other, to the search for higher yields, with some of the money shifted to time deposits or government bonds. One fifth of Italians' liquidity is in Lombardy: at the end of last year, the region's resident depositors had a total of EUR 234.4 billion, or 20.4% of the total and twice as much as the other two regions on the podium. In fact, Lazio with 120.9 billion and Veneto with 105.4 billion had 10.5% and 9.2% of Italy's reserves, respectively. The ranking then continues with: 97.7 billion in Emilia Romagna (8.5%), 90.1 billion in Piedmont (7.8%), 87.7 billion in Campania (7.6%), 72.9 billion in Tuscany (6.3%), 60.4 billion in Puglia (5.3%), 58.1 billion in Siclia (5.1%), 32.1 billion in Liguria (2.8%), 30,3 billion in Marche (2.6%), 28.7 billion in Trentino Alto Adige (2.5%), 26.1 billion in Friuli Venezia Giulia (2.3%), 25.6 billion in Calabria (2.2%), 23.1 billion in Abruzzo (2.0%), 22.7 billion in Sardinia (2.0%), 14.3 billion in Umbria (1.3%). Below 1%, in the tail trio, are Basilicata with 10.8 billion (0.9%), Molise with 6.1 billion (0.5%) and Valle d'Aosta with 2.7 billion (0.2%).

With the exception of Sardinia and Basilicata, where there has been a positive change, between 2022 and 2023, of EUR 21 million (+0.1%) and EUR 50 million (+0.5%) respectively, in all the other regions the balance of current accounts - 43 billion less on a national basis - shows a negative figure over the past 12 months. The largest 'hole' is in Lombardy and amounts to 13.7 billion (-5.5%). Much further away, Emilia Romagna with an annual deficit of 5.4 billion (-5.2%), Piedmont with minus 4.7 billion (-5.09%), Lazio with minus 3.9 billion (-3.2%), Veneto with minus 3.3 billion (-3.1%), Tuscany with minus 3,2 billion (-4.3%), Liguria with minus 1.8 billion (-5.4%), Marche with minus 1.4 billion (-4.9%), Campania with minus 1.2 billion (-1.4%), Sicily with minus 1.1 billion (-2.0%), Puglia with minus 1 billion (-1.8%).