(ANSA) - The growing number of foreigners living and working in Italy is having an impact on the country's banking system, the director of the Italian Banking Association (ABI) said on Monday.
Addressing a conference on microcredit, Giuseppe Zadra underlined the benefits for Italian banks if the foreign population continued to grow.
"The forecasts of those working in the sector, such as [Catholic charity] Caritas, suggest there will be nearly six million immigrants in Italy within 10 years," he said.
"At that point, foreigners will hold over three million bank accounts, accounting for 10% of the total."
At the moment, Italy is home to 2.8 million foreigners from 195 different countries making up 5% of the overall population. This is double the amount living here in 2000, a trend that is set to continue, according to the national statistics institute and Caritas.
Around 2.1 million of Italy's foreigners are adults residing here legally, and around 57.3% of these hold a bank account.
"This means 1.2 million clients for banks," said Zadra, suggesting that Italian companies should tailor their services accordingly.
The sector is a comparatively new one in Italy - 60.6% of immigrant accounts were opened in just the last five years - meaning banks are still learning the best way to target the foreign market.
Besides current accounts, Zadra explained that the most popular products were pre-paid or rechargeable cards, which can be used like debit or credit cards, loans and mortgages, and services used to send money back home.
Banks that have reached accords with foreign banks or money transfer agencies are particularly popular among immigrants, as are those offering direct transfers into foreign accounts.
Foreign workers send almost five billion euros back to their families each year. Britain is the only country in Europe with a greater outflow in this sector.
"Romania, Albania and Morocco are the three countries that receive the highest portion of this," said the ABI chief.
However, he said that less than half this amount passed through banking channels at the moment. This is due to the fact that a high percentage of immigrants are originally from small villages where bank transfers are not an option.
"We're working with the foreign ministry to try and find solutions to this problem ups by setting up alternative forms of transfer," he said.
