ROME: Italians worried about the stability of their banks have found a new place to put their money: the state-controlled post office. “Nobody knows where your money is safe today,” says Leonardo Galli, a 58-year-old accountant who has resolved to move all his savings out of his bank to a current account with Poste Italiane (PST.MI), one of many who are deserting the banking sector. “Poste Italiane is state controlled, this is a safeguard,” he explains. He already channels his salary into a Poste Italiane account and pays his bills through a standing order made at a post office branch a few steps away from his office.
The 154-year-old Poste Italiane is winning deposits as fast as some traditional lenders are losing them, attracting savers disillusioned with a banking system that is straining under bad debts and appears to be in permanent crisis. Alarmed by daily media reports about faltering bank rescue plans, savers have deposited about 3 billion euros ($3.4 billion) in the post office in the last six months alone.
Poste, owned 65 percent by the state and with a network of 13,000 branches, reported a 6.5 percent jump in deposits in the first half of this year. They continued to grow in the third quarter, a source at Poste Italiane said. It is unclear how much of this money has been taken from the banking sector, but troubled lenders such as Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS.MI) and Banca Carige (CRGI.MI) leaked deposits at a similar rate, around 6 percent, in the same period.
For Galli, from the northern town of Como, Poste’s yellow-and-blue logo represents security and stability but it has other advantages he could not find at his bank. In opening an account two years ago, he was attracted by Poste’s extensive network, low costs and offices that opened on Saturday mornings. He was also pleased with the return on some investments he made recently through Poste. “I have invested money in a fund and I earned a yield my bank couldn’t match,” Galli said. He did not want to reveal the name of the lender, but said it was one of Italy’s major banks.
