ROME, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Italy plans to revisit its contested windfall tax on banks by giving lenders the option to boost their reserve buffers instead of paying the levy, a draft amendment seen by Reuters showed on Saturday.
Bank shares tumbled before the economy ministry clarified that it would not collect more than 0.1% of lenders' total assets.
More importantly, instead of paying the tax, banks can boost their non-distributable reserves by earmarking an amount equivalent to two and a half times the levy.
Such an option is expected to exempt cooperative banks from the tax, as they usually put aside a large part of their profits as reserves.
In the current version, the tax would apply if NIM grows by 5% in 2022 and 10% in 2023 from 2021 levels.
Persons:
Giorgia Meloni, NIM, Jan Harvey
Organizations:
Reuters, European Central Bank, Bank, Treasury, Thomson
Locations:
Italy, Rome, Frankfurt