Sileoni to the banks: 'The money is there, but 70% of the profits go to the shareholders. It's time to think of the workers'

"In recent years we have witnessed something never seen before: from 2022 to 2025, the banking sector in Italia has accumulated profits of more than EUR 110 billion. In 2025 alone, the top five banks closed with EUR 27 billion in profits, up 16% in one year. But where do the profits end up? They do not stay in the company but 70-80% go to the shareholders'. At the 130th National Council of the Fabi, the general secretary, Lando Maria Sileoni does "the accounts in the pockets" of the banks, so as to clarify how one positions oneself at the starting blocks, while there are only a few weeks to go before the expiry (30 March) of the record Abi (and then Bcc) contract renewed in 2023 with an increase of 435 euro on average. For the trade unionist, the money to be redistributed is there, if only because 'in the sector we only work to make the stock market go up and to pay higher and higher coupons. And while revenues and profits continue to grow, operating costs, including labour costs, are stagnating, if not falling. Each banker, on average, produces four times the value added for his bank. This means that the resources to recognise the contribution of each banker are there'. A concept that resounds loud and clear at the East end studios in Milan in front of the 1.800 trade union leaders of Fabi, the president of Abi, Antonio Patuelli, the president of Casl of Abi, Ilaria Dalla Riva, and all the heads of personnel of the major banks who spoke, from Roberto Cascella of Intesa Sanpaolo, to Fiorella Ferri of Mps, Roberto Speziotto of Banco Bpm, Andrea Merenda of Bper, and will speak, from Geraldine Conti of Bnl Bnp Paribas, to Matteo Bianchi of Credit Agricole Italia. And a special observer such as Francesco Micheli, historic banking manager and president of several Abi Casl. For the trade unions, as well as for the banks, the appointment is double, there is the renewal of the Abi labour contract, but there is also that of the Bcc. For the world of Federcasse the message then comes to Federcasse vice-president Matteo Spanò, in the stalls and then on stage.

On the two Abi and Federcasse tables it will be decided "how the digital transformation will enter into working conditions, continuous training, load management, protection against automatic evaluation systems, and limits to commercial pressure," says Sileoni. While, alongside the national contract, the role of second-level bargaining is also growing, and it is increasingly there that strategies are taking concrete shape, as is also shown by what is happening with the negotiations on the Digital Steering Committee, which, also for this reason, is proceeding very slowly and with few concrete results, to the point that it is easier to assume that a very light national framework will emerge, which the groups will then be able to adapt at home.

The strength of bargaining in the sector lies in the fact that 'trade union relations have always had the ability to intercept, anticipate, and find adequate and lasting solutions to new and complex phenomena,' Dalla Riva affirms. 'We were the first to regulate the Solidarity Fund and the Employment Fund, we talked about and regulated smart working before the pandemic, we are talking today about innovation and artificial intelligence. We will know how to interpret this historical phase as well, with responsibility to consolidate the trust of our people and customers'. Micheli is also convinced of this: 'The quality of industrial relations in the sector has always been transferred to the negotiating tables and contracts. We have faced difficult times when making contracts was not easy and it was necessary to combine increases and employment. Today among the issues to be addressed is artificial intelligence: I believe that it is possible to make a good contract, but it will have to be a reformist contract, capable of providing answers and simplifying'. Sileoni himself says that '50, 60 per cent of the pages of the contract are outdated'.

We are in a phase of rapid change and much more competition between groups than in the past, in which the union cannot stand by and watch the air in the window. "The transformation of the banking sector is not an ordinary phase. It is an epochal hairpin bend. And in epochal hairpin bends,' says Sileoni, 'it is not enough to observe. You have to choose'. The choice the trade unionist spoke about at the 130th Fabi National Council meeting is whether to take responsibility for governing the change with a proactive role or not. The digital transformation is profoundly reshaping all sectors and the banking sector in particular, and this year's Fabi meeting was dedicated precisely to the changes in banks in the digital era, with a comparison between how they were yesterday and how they are today, with contributions from four CEOs who have made the history of the Italian banking sector: Piero Luigi Montani, Corrado Passera, Alessandro Profumo, and Fabrizio Viola. And that of a manager from a younger generation such as the CEO of Banca del Mezzogiorno, Cristiano Carrus. As well as contributions from academics such as Riccardo Zecchina on artificial intelligence, Donato Masciandaro on banking regulation, Alberto Brambilla on social security and welfare, and Claudio Emanuele Felice on the economic scenario. After all, who more than them could have given insights to the 1,800 Fabi trade union leaders in view of the contract renewal.

So to clear the field of doubts, Sileoni says that his love of freedom and democracy leads Fabi to be against the digital euro. A distant position from that represented by the president of Abi, Antonio Patuelli, who points out that it is 'a prospect of a historical nature, it is like when from the multi-millennial metal currency we passed to the banknote: it is inevitable, despite the fact that some people fear it'. Artificial intelligence and technology fuel the day's debate. With their diffusion, 'I do not think that work will no longer be needed, but different work will be needed, and retraining and training will be needed,' Patuelli continued. Work in retrained terms will be indispensable. For Profumo, 'the impact on the sector will be devastating and the sector will have to adapt'. According to Passera, for the level of investment required 'size has become a necessary element'. Sileoni adds that already today 'decisions are processed by automated systems, the relationship with customers increasingly passes through platforms, every activity is tracked, every result is measured'. Nothing wrong with that, indeed. But we must not lose sight of the fact that 'technology is not neutral and brings with it a vision', Sileoni reflects. Using it in a short-term perspective to cut costs and increase profits will produce imbalances and tensions, using it to improve the quality of work can instead improve organisation, free up time, increase skills. Of one thing the trade unionist is certain: 'It cannot become a war between banks played on the skin of the people'. Of the huge investments in technology and digital, all companies will want to return, and the risk of not governing the change is that even the banks will witness the transfer of wealth 'from labour, which is increasingly reduced, to capital'. For Sileoni, having vision means governing change, not undergoing it. The road according to the trade unionist is marked out: 'We must look ahead and think that the banks' wealth must be rebalanced, that part of those profits must return to the real economy and to those who build those profits every day'. The bankers precisely.