Intesa CEO warns Rome not to tax banks excessively, stresses public debt role

MILAN (Reuters) -Intesa Sanpaolo CEO Carlo Messina urged Italy's government not to single out banks with excessive tax rises on Thursday, stressing the support they provide in buying public debt.

Messina, who leads Italy's largest lender, also told Il Sole 24 Ore in an interview that banks faced regulatory pressure to reduce their holdings of domestic debt.

Italy is considering raising further the IRAP corporate tax levied on banks and insurers to fund costly amendments to next year's budget, political sources told Reuters on Wednesday. 

The draft budget already includes a two-percentage-point IRAP increase for lenders.

Messina said banks and insurers were less than half the total in a group of 22 Italian companies with more than 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) in annual profit, including some state-owned firms.

"Why not think of a wider target when it comes to supporting public finances?" he said.

Rome is evaluating further hiking IRAP by half a percentage point on bigger lenders only, the sources said. 

Messina said that weakening banks was a risky strategy given the support they provided to Italy's economy and urged the government to tackle "shameful" levels of tax evasion instead.

Banks hold around 400 billion euros of Italy's 3 trillion euros in public debt and insurers another 250 billion, Messina said.

"I find the attitude towards the banking system wrong for a country that still needs to solve the problem of its public debt," he said. 

"Banks and insurers had in the past, still do and will continue to have a key role in supporting public finances. It would be good not to forget that," he added. 

($1 = 0.8630 euros) 

(Reporting by Valentina Za, Giuseppe Fonte and Gianluca Semeraro; Editing by Alexander Smith)