All postponed at least until January 12 for the transformation into joint stock of the last two popular banks - that of Bari and that of Sondrio - called by the Renzi reform to abandon the per capita vote and to assume a new corporate guise. In the absence of news from the Government, which for the moment has not included in the Milleproroghe decree any postponement of the obligations to which the two Popolari were required by the end of 2016, the provisions of the Milan and Bari courts apply which, pending a pronouncement of the Consulta, have postponed indefinitely the transformation into a joint stock company.
Barring surprises from Parliament on the occasion of the conversion of the decree, it is nonetheless unlikely that the Constitutional Court, which has already rejected the appeal of the Lombardy Region against the reform, intends to prolong the state of uncertainty by postponing the transformation into a joint stock company to the Greek calendars, on which he will pronounce in his session on January 12 called to discuss the constitutionality exceptions expressed before Christmas by the Council of State.
But beyond the times of the spa, the greatest unknown concerns the reimbursements to shareholders who exercise the right of withdrawal on the occasion of the transformation into a spa after the Council of State rejected the circular from the Bank of Italy which recommended to the Popolari a lot prudence on repayments, subordinating their methods and timing to the financial stability needs of the banks themselves. Now everything is being questioned again and, if new regulatory certainties are not sanctioned which establish a new point of equilibrium between banks and their outgoing shareholders, the risk is that a rain of repayments will arrive on the cooperative banks which do not only concern Popolare di Sondrio and that of Bari but all the main Popolari that have already been transformed into spas.
It would be a new tile that is not really needed and that the Constitutional Court, the Bank of Italy and the Government would do well, each in their own sphere, to remove before it can do any more damage.
