Clash in Europe on tax credits and system bad banks by June. These are the two innovations that are moving the Italian banking world, while the unions prepare the consultation of the base to vote on the recent contract renewal and the large Popolari are preparing to face their first meetings after the Renzi reform which requires the abolition of the one-to-one vote and transformation into a joint stock company.
EU TIGHTENING ON TAX CREDITS
The European Commission's confirmation that it had asked Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece for information on the suspicion that state aid is hidden behind the use of bank tax credits came as a bolt from the blue and opened a very tough conflict within the EU itself. The Commission contests that banks use tax credits as tools to raise their capital base. But for now there is no formal notification of infringement because clarifications from the various governments in question are awaited and all the elements in the field must be evaluated.
It is no coincidence that a tough confrontation has opened within the Commission between those who support a new tightening on banks and those who point out that financial stability comes first and that the new Basel rules have already led credit institutions to strengthen their notably also to the detriment of credit to households and businesses.
However, the dossier is on the table of the competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager and the game is open. The ABI has not hidden its astonishment at a move, at least improvident, by a part of the European Commission.
BAD BANK COMING WITH DEF
On the other hand, good news for the banks comes from the Def, which will be definitively approved by the Council of Ministers on Friday: not only because 2015 taxes will not increase but they will decrease overall by 21 billion without the institutions being able to resort to new surtaxes but because the Government he wants to resolve the burning issue of bank non-performing loans by June with the promotion of a system bad bank which should arrive in June. Naturally, the judgment will depend on how it will be done and who will pay, but the Government seems to have accepted the solicitations in this sense recently advanced by the Governor of the Bank of Italy, Ignazio Visco.
In the draft of the Def there is a specific paragraph entitled "Solidity and transparency of banks" and which concerns the application of the reform of cooperative banks, the self-reform of banking foundations and "initiatives on non-performing loans", a burden of 330 billion euros which currently burdens banks' balance sheets and hinders the normal disbursement of credit.
For now, the Def does not explain the methods and characteristics of the bad bank and limits itself to saying that "the operations being studied are aimed at facilitating the transfer by intermediaries of a significant portion of non-performing loans to companies". However, an active, albeit slight, role of the State is conceivable which will have to be compatible with European rules and also with the logic of the market which does not exclude the State taking charge of the problems of the banks but clearly distinguishing those deriving from the economic crisis from those that arise instead from mismanagement.
BANKING CONTRACT
The unions are preparing the grassroots consultation on the recent hypothesis of contract renewal. First the national leading bodies of the unions will meet (and today the Fisac.Cgil begins) then it will be the workers' turn.
However, if prejudicially contrary maneuvers do not prevail in the Fisac CGIL as in the previous renewal, the contract which marks a very important change in difficult times should be able to be approved by a large majority.
This time, however, the secretary of the CGIL, Susanna Camusso, also took the field in defense of the contract, supporting the agreement signed by the leader of Fisac Agostino Megale and threatening an iron fist towards the dissidents.
POPULAR BANKS
Spotlight on the first meetings of the cooperative banks after the Renzi reform which abolishes the per capita vote for the largest Popolari in 18 months and compulsorily provides for their transformation into joint stock companies. Above all, Saturday's meeting of the Bpm is awaited, which, after having settled the accounts, is among the most active in terms of mergers and aggregations. However, it is difficult for big news to arrive as early as Saturday but certainly the change of pace of the Popolari will not be kept waiting too long.
Bpm thinks above all of Banco Popolare: if a merger were born, the third Italian banking center would see the light. Ubi, which yesterday opened a representative office in New York, is thinking instead of Mps. Bper studies Unipol Banca. Finally, in Veneto Banca there is a growing "no" to the hypothesis of a merger with Popolare di Vicenza which, although supported by the Bank of Italy, would risk colonizing the Montebelluna bank.
