Italian assets are flowing back into Switzerland. It’s the reversal of a trend that started three years ago with the signing of a tax treaty between the two nations.

Fiduciaries and wealth managers based in Italian-speaking cities of Switzerland have been saying it for months: the Italian money is coming back. And the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in Basel has now confirmed: in the 12 months from the summer of 2017 through the summer of 2018, Italians have moved no less than 11 billion euros ($12.5 billion) to Switzerland.

Unlike some of the money that was deposited in Switzerland before, these assets are registered with the Italian authorities. The owners are putting it mainly on Ticino-based banks, according to a report by «Repubblica», the Italian broadsheet.

Doomsday Scenario: Return of the Lira

Franco Citterio, the head of the regional bank association, told the newspaper that the inflow of assets had kept up since the summer. «With the discussions between Rome and the EU about the Italian budget, the interest in deposits in Switzerland remained acute,» he said. Banks in the Ticino region continuously received requests about the opening of accounts.

Rich Italians primarily fret about the possibility of an exit from the Eurozone. Returning to the lira no doubt would come at the price of a hefty drop in the value of their assets. Hence their renewed interest in moving parts of their assets to the relative security of Switzerland.

The return of the money comes as a relief for the Ticino banks, which suffered badly from a tax treaty agreed between Switzerland and Italy in 2015.

What Used to Be a Communist Threat

The amnesty called by the Italian government resulted in the declaration of some 160 billion euros – assets that no longer needed to be left in Switzerland. Some of the local banks in Switzerland’s southern-most canton were forced to give up, while bigger banks closed branches. In 2017 alone, some 240 jobs were lost in financial services in the Ticino.

The renewed flow of money to the north is not a new phenomenon. In the 1960s and 1970s, Italians took their money to Switzerland because the local currency was constantly devalued and because they worried about a communist takeover. Today, the concerns focus on the policies of the populist government formed earlier this year.