Guaranteeing autonomy to cooperative banks and avoiding consortia of shareholders who would profoundly change their raison d'etre. This is the position of the consumer association Adoc with regard to the reform of cooperative banks, which is once again being examined by the Senate Finance Commission. The consumer associations concluded the hearings which saw the contribution of experts, economists, the Bank of Italy and the association of cooperative banks.
Today the point will be taken and it will be decided how to arrive at a text that unifies the various bills. Achieving a shared reform will not be very easy, because there are many knots to untie. For consumers, what must absolutely be safeguarded is autonomy. The president of Adoc, Carlo Pileri, clearly reiterated this, who in the Finance commission should have also been joined by the representatives of Federconsumatori and Adiconsum, who, however, due to previous commitments, were unable to participate in the hearing. “But we have a common position,” Pilari assures.
According to the president "we need to safeguard the original spirit of cooperative banks, which is that - he reiterated in the commission - of dealing with families, consumers, small businesses, the development of the territory in which they operate". And therefore on the part of cooperative banks "there can be no room for financial and speculative operations". Emphasizing that "the reform must also be carried out as quickly as possible", the president of Adoc clarified how the reform under discussion "must guarantee autonomy to the cooperative banks and avoid consortia of shareholders who would profoundly change the raison d'etre of this type of banks".
Furthermore, "a dual system of banks is preferable to a system involving only large banks", often with extra-national vocations and little propensity towards the local area. This is a characteristic on which he insisted, adding that "the ability to have an autonomous presence in the area could be strengthened and guaranteed if the banking foundations participated in the capital of the cooperatives, given that they already operate in the capital increases of ordinary banks".
However, Pileri did not comment on the "quantum" of a possible participation. Just as he did not touch on the subject of the one-to-one vote. Reached by telephone, he explained that during the hearing the smallest details were not entered into, but – he adds – "as far as I am concerned, the per capita vote must be maintained, it is a guarantee for the cooperative banks against any consortiums that could affect their way of being and working”. And therefore "no to the accumulation of proxies".
