Paris: Italy's biggest banks rank no higher than ninth in Europe by market value. They come in first by another yardstick: robberies.
Heists at Italian banks accounted for almost half of all thefts in the European Union last year, according to a June 30 report by banking union FIBA. The report concluded that Italian banks have too much cash on hand at too many branches.
Italy recorded 1,744 bank robberies last year, more than six times the number in Germany and 20 times the UK figure, FIBA reported. Italian banks lost 36.8 million euro (Dh171.9 million) to thieves last year, according to data compiled by Italian banking association ABI.
"The less that cash circulates in branches, the fewer robberies we'll have," said Pierfrancesco Gaggi, the Rome-based head of infrastructure at ABI, in an interview.
The abundance of branches in neighbourhoods with minimal police presence makes Italian banks easy picking for thieves, said Alessandro Spaggiari, FIBA's national secretary in Rome. Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy's biggest bank by branches, has 5,921 outlets in its home market, more than twice as many as France's BNP Paribas and about 1,000 more than Banco Santander has in its Spanish network.
Santander is Europe's second-largest bank by market value after London-based HSBC Holdings Plc and Paris-based BNP Paribas is third, while Milan-based Intesa places 14th, data show.
