Not only the banks and the world of finance but above all the small shareholders are anxiously awaiting the final hearing of the Constitutional Court on the reform of cooperative banks which will take place on Tuesday 20 March. The verdict keeps about 250 shareholders and small savers on the ropes, of which 175 from Banca Popolare di Sondrio and 69 from Banca Popolare di Bari.
The crux of the matter, which tomorrow will oppose the parties awaiting the sentence expected in mid-April, is the constitutional legitimacy of the reform carried out by decree by the Renzi government after more than twenty years of postponements, false starts, aborted reforms. The reform, much supported by the Bank of Italy, envisaged the transformation into joint stock companies of the major cooperative banks, those with over 8 billion in assets.
Since then, 6 Popolari have been transformed into joint stock companies (Banco Popolare, Bpm, Ubi, Bper, Creval, Volksbank), one ended up in resolution and was then bought by Ubi (Banca Etruria), two went bankrupt and were then incorporated by Intesa Sanpaolo, while two others – Popolare di Bari and that of Sondrio – froze their transformation into joint-stock companies after winning the appeal to the Council of State which suspended the application of the reform pending the final verdict of the Consult.
The issues under examination by the Constitutional Court are essentially two: the legitimacy of recourse to the decree and the right of shareholders to withdraw with the connected faculty of the banks, granted by the Bank of Italy, to suspend or remodulate the repayment in the event perhaps the financial stability of the institutions in question. Needless to say, it is precisely on this second point that the expectations of the banks and the 250 shareholders directly involved are concentrated.
After tomorrow's final hearing, however, it will still take some time to reach the end of the troubled affair, both because the Court will need at least a month to prepare and publicize its verdict, and because the word will then return to the Council of State which will have to implement the indications and issue the definitive sentence.
