Investments of Italians: the rise of cryptocurrencies and sustainable investments

In the portfolios of Italians, at least of those interviewed for the 2024 edition of Consob's Report on Investment Choices of Italian Households (now in its ninth edition), there is a fairly traditional mix of financial products, although cryptocurrencies and sustainable investments are beginning to make more room. Moreover, the report for the first time delves into the issue of the sources of information retail investors approach for guidance in their investments.

On the issue of information, it emerges that traditional sources such as institutional, specialised and financial intermediary websites are still widely used by investors to obtain financial information, albeit within a broader range of possibilities. In particular, 67% of respondents source their information on the web. In second place is television (43%). This is followed with 36% by social media (on a par with financial intermediaries' websites or apps). Print and online newspapers are used by 34% of respondents, a percentage that drops to 33% for the sites of institutions.

So the digital age has now fully entered the financial choices of Italians. In particular, social media as a source of information in this field has a greater hold on young people aged between 18 and 34 (58%), women (42% compared to 34% of men), households managing sums of less than EUR 50,000 (41% compared to 33% of those with higher assets) and those with a low level of financial education (55% compared to 33%). Although it must be said that the reassuring aspect is that social media have a relevance mainly in the first phase of the investment process, i.e. when gathering information for orientation, when it comes to the final decision on how to invest one's money, the percentage of respondents who let themselves be guided by the indications found on social media drops to 3%.

According to the report, Italians mainly own certificates of deposit and postal savings bonds, followed by government bonds, mutual funds and bonds. So a rather traditional picture at the end of the day, but in the meantime the declared presence of cryptoassets in portfolios grows considerably. Between 2022 and 2024 (this year's survey was taken in the first quarter), the percentage of respondents claiming to have cryptocurrencies in their wallets more than doubled, from 8% to 18%. The worrying fact is that this choice seems to be more of a fad than a conscious decision, since it is not always associated with actual knowledge of the characteristics of this type of digital asset.

Investments qualified as sustainable are also on the rise, present in the piggy bank of 20% of the respondents in 2024 compared to 11% in 2022, although there are rather contradictory indications on sustainability. In many cases, the fact that the investor is guided by an advisor is decisive for the choice in this respect, and sustainable investment products are also associated with a medium- to long-term time horizon. On the aspects that hold back 'green' investing is the fact that 42% do not perceive them as more profitable, 38% do not associate them with lower costs and 36% do not consider them less risky. And there are other deterrents: for example, investors report that they consider sustainable finance to be too opaque (41%) and that it is a marketing phenomenon (39%).