A small loan costs more than a large one: 4.37 against 3.55

22 September 2026, 18:06

Every month the Bank of Italy publishes a statistical report called ‘Banks and Money’ that nobody reads. It sets out how much money costs Italian businesses, and in July this is what it said.

A business that takes out a loan of up to one million euros pays on average 4.37 per cent.

A business that asks for more than one million pays 3.55.

Same month, same country, same banks. Almost a point of difference, and it runs in the direction you would expect: whoever asks for less pays more.

There is a reason, and it is no mystery. A small loan has to be processed just like a large one — same paperwork, same time, same signature — and on a small sum that cost weighs more. And whoever asks for little is usually small: fewer guarantees, less track record, narrower shoulders. The bank puts a price on risk, which is its job.

But the result of that job, laid out in a row, says something precise: money costs more for those who have less of it. On three hundred thousand euros of debt held for a year, that difference of almost a point comes to almost two and a half thousand euros. Every year. For a business that feels that money, while the one above the million would not even notice it.

And on the other side of the same counter, money left in the account earns 0.69 per cent.

But the part that really gets your goat is none of these. It is that ‘Banks and Money’ comes out every month, it is public, it is free, and only one of the two people sitting at the table knows it by heart.

So that number, written into the contract, looks like the price of money. It is not: it is the price decided for that particular business. Another business, on the same day, at the same counter, signed a different one.

Anyone who knows that 4.37 can ask why they were charged more, and insist on an answer. Anyone who does not, signs.

Then it is called negotiation.

This article was prompted by data published by Banca d'Italia.