"I think there is room for a plan that enhances the Italian financial market, I don't mean a Financial Act but something similar that can make a contribution to the relaunch". This was anticipated today by Michele Calzolari, president of Assosim, in a meeting with journalists on the occasion of the association's annual meeting which nominated the new governing bodies. The Italian Association of Securities Intermediaries has announced that it is working on a proposal to be presented to the Government which goes in the direction of identifying suitable instruments to allow the relaunch of the Italian financial market.
The reflection, which has been open for some time, is even more in the light of the recent announcement of the merger between the London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Boerse. “A player with important characteristics in derivatives and post trading is born, but it is not clear what role the Italian component will play” commented Calzolari, indicating the great tradition of fixed income and the small caps theme as areas to be valorised. On the other hand, access to the capital market by the small and medium-sized enterprises that make up the backbone of our entrepreneurial system has long been a major challenge for the whole system. On this front, there are already initiatives that aim to bring companies closer to market instruments, such as the Elite program of Borsa Italiana. However, there is also much work to be done on the demand side, i.e. on the investors side. Suffice it to say that, according to data from a Carefin study cited by Assosim, the abortion rate of a listing for SMEs already in the roadshow and booking building phase is around 50%. One out of two withdraws. In other countries it is about one in four. And this, Assosim explains, is because we have no domestic investors.
And it is precisely on this front, on the creation of a more solid demand, that some of the proposals that Assosim will present will be articulated, working on the elaboration of a position paper. One of the ideas being discussed is the proposal to introduce the Isa mechanism in Italy, already used on the Anglo-Saxon market and which has allowed its strong expansion. It is a system that allows a private individual to allocate their investments in SMEs, benefiting from the exemption on the taxation of dividends and capital gains. The mechanism works up to a maximum amount of money invested and against a lock up (the commitment not to sell the shares) of a certain number of years (in England it is four, Assosim thinks of a time frame from three years upward). The incentive could then be adjusted over the years according to the speed of strengthening of the market and could also be extended to investment funds dedicated to SMEs. “As soon as the stock market recovers – Calzolari pointed out – the costs of the incentive would be recovered on the tax front”. At the same time, a second proposal under study is the mandatory introduction of a corporate broker so that there is independent research activity also on SME securities: today there are listed companies on which nobody does research.
The times, however, require that a much wider table be opened. “We had a long battle over the Tobin Tax – recalled Calzolari – but now it's there and today the issue is to overcome this concept towards an overall revision of the system”. Not only is it necessary to review the incentive system extensively, but it is appropriate to put on the table the overall question of greater financial training, as well as the theme of the development of operators and institutional investors, starting with the pension fund industry which it should grow and take on a more present role in the domestic financial landscape. If in Italy, underlined Assosim, the average of open pension funds is invested in domestic securities for less than 1% (in line with the reference benchmark), in other countries it has performed a function of support to the financial market arriving at moments of crisis, as in the case of Japan, to be invested up to 24% in Japanese equities. “The Capital Markets Union (the European Union's plan to mobilize capital in Europe, Editor's note) – concluded Calzolari – should be seen by everyone as an important step to which everyone must help”.
