In April 2014, during a meeting at Palazzo Chigi which was also attended by ministers Delrio and Padoan, the then prime minister Matteo Renzi asked the governor of Bank of Italy Ignazio Visco "why those of Vicenza were interested in Banca Etruria". Visco himself revealed it on Tuesday, speaking before the bicameral commission of inquiry into banking crises the following day the hearing of Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan. “I took it as a joke – Visco explained – On a second occasion to introduce him to the directorate of the Bank of Italy, Renzi asked me to talk about the banks in difficulty and I replied that I only spoke to the minister about this. On my part there was no temptation to answer but he asked the question".
Visco then assured that the undersecretary to the Prime Minister, Maria Elena Boschi, has never put pressure on the Bank of Italy to intervene in support of Banca Etruria. The deputy general manager of Bankitalia, Fabio Panetta, “was the person who spoke with the minister. Did she tell him anything? No, because I told Panetta that we are not talking about confidential supervisory issues".
With Panetta, explained Visco, the ex-minister of reforms had "brief talks and there was no request for particular interventions" for Banca Etruria. “There was – she added – the expression of interest and displeasure for the crisis that a bank like this could have in the area. Pressures? No, he took cum grano salis of mature people for whom these things are not spoken of".
The Governor then underlined that the Bank of Italy “has never put pressure on anyone to favor the Banca Popolare di Vicenza or solicit its intervention. Never. I learned of Vicenza's interest in Etruria in April 2014. The interesting point is that it followed an activity formally communicated by Banca Etruria in a letter in response to my request to team up with a partner of an adequate size. There hasn't been any pressure or guidance: we've just received interest. Vicenza was interested in expanding in various directions, it was a policy they had in mind. They had been told in 2011 not to seek aggregations because there were insufficiencies, then the Supervisory Authority canceled this indication and they started to get agitated ".
Il Governor later revealed that the ex-president of Popolare di Vicenza, Gianni Zonin, on which the request for indictment is pending and he too was heard in committee, he spoke to him about a possible merger with Veneto Banca: “Zonin came to talk to me for five minutes about what he was interested in and I recommended balance and equal intervention. I've never had any calls from Zonin about it."
Visco underlined that "banks are businesses and as such they are treated by the Supervisory Authority in full respect of their management autonomy, for which they always have the most complete responsibility - added Visco - The Supervisory Authority intervenes to indicate to the banks the necessary measures for a sound and prudent management but cannot establish the operating methods with which the specific interventions must be adopted. This is why we point out the need for an aggregation: it is up to the banks to identify the counterparty with which to carry it out".
"BAD MANAGEMENT AND THE ECONOMIC CRISIS HAVE EXPLODED PATHOLOGICAL SITUATIONS"
Therefore, according to the Governor, “the evolution of the Italian financial system was not determined by inattentive supervision, but by the worst economic crisis in the history of our country. However, there has been bad management by some banks and we have underlined it several times: the extremely serious conditions of the economy have caused pathological situations to explode”.
“ON POP VICENZA WE COULD BE MORE AWARE”
“On the banking crises – continued Visco – I have two regrets”. The first is for not "pushing hard" the banks on the recovery of non-performing loans and the second is precisely on the popular Vicenza: "Could we have been smarter in 2013? The answer is perhaps yes. In the Directory, we considered it not an extraordinary bank, not the best among the popular ones but certainly capable of making acquisitions of smaller banks”.
The number one of Via Nazionale recalls the outcome of the affair "and unfortunately our assessment does not correspond to the nature of the people" of that bank with reference to the capital increase conducted incorrectly. "No,
we didn't notice," the Governor admitted
"SURVEILLANCE DOES NOT HAVE THE POWERS OF THE JUDGMENT"
However, Visco defended the Bank of Italy from accusations of late and inattentive supervision, emphasizing that Via Nazionale “cannot intervene on the basis of hypotheses not supported by proven evidence: if it did it would violate the law. The Supervisory Authority does not have the powers of the judicial authority, to which any suspicion is promptly reported”.
“LOYAL AND CONSTANT COLLABORATION WITH CONSOB”
As for relations with Consob, "some of our communications have been judged 'cryptic' and discrepancies have been highlighted with respect to the interventions addressed directly to intermediaries - Visco continued - My opinion is instead that the communication with Consob was fair and constant at technical and top level. Also thanks to this collaboration it was possible to overcome various crisis situations, together with the government. In this same spirit we recognize that, despite the progress achieved with the 2012 protocol and with collaboration at a technical level, more can still be done to improve communication. Work is already underway to review the protocols governing the sharing of information between the two authorities, in order to make them more effective".
“REVOLVING DOORS? NEVER ANY CONVICTION"
During the work of the commission, the Governor added, “the phenomenon of the so-called 'revolving doors' has received a lot of attention. The suspicion that the presence of ex-employees of the Bank of Italy among the staff of the banks has negatively influenced the accuracy of the work of the Supervisory Authority has been overshadowed. I want to remind you that our inspectors carry out their activities in the capacity of public officials and that in over 120 years of history of the Bank of Italy there has never been an inspector who, in the exercise of his function, has been guilty of omitted supervision, or has been convicted of bribery or bribery. The honesty and integrity of the Bank of Italy staff have never wavered”.
"LOWER BANK RESCUE COSTS THAN OTHER COUNTRIES"
The cost of bank bailouts to the Italian state”it is currently estimated at around 13 billion, 0,8 percent of GDP – underlined Visco – The cost of public interventions to support the Italian financial sector, against which there will be at least a partial recovery, is therefore very low in international comparison, despite the fact that the fall of the real economy here has been much more serious than in other countries". In Germany the impact on public debt was 227 billion (7,2% of GDP), in Great Britain 101 billion (4,3%) and in Spain 52 billion (4,6%).
“NEVER ANY DIFFERENCE WITH THE PRESIDENTS OF THE COUNCIL. ON THE SUPERVISORY I HAVE ALWAYS SPOKE ONLY WITH PADOAN"
“In my conversations with the presidents of the council there has never been a disagreement. Different assessments, at times, and not just with Renzi. But I have never spoken about matters relating to Supervision except with the Minister of the Economy. I can't say with the Economy Minister that I speak every day: sometimes even many times a day. We also met Gentiloni and Renzi many times. We may have had different approaches, but always with transparency, clarity and understanding of the problems we were facing”.
Governor Visco - Full text of the hearing
RENZI'S NOTE: "VISCO HAS DISPOSED EVERY DOUBT" ABOUT BOSCHI AND DELRIO
“I am pleased that Visco finally dispels any doubts about the behavior of the ministers. None of them has ever exerted pressure but only legitimate interests linked to their territory: an institutionally impeccable activity also carried out by regional administrators of every political color. I therefore thank Governor Visco who puts an end to weeks of media speculation and verbal lynching of members of my government". Matteo Renzi writes it, in a note after the hearing of the governor of the Bank of Italy in the commission of inquiry into banks.
“I confirm that our interest in Etruria was decidedly less than in other serious problems of the credit system and the time it took us to inform ourselves of this confirms it - adds Renzi - the joint work on other dossiers was decidedly more significant, starting from that of Atlas. However, I claim the fact that I have been interested in all the individual territories, none excluded, subject to banking crises. The difficulties of the Marche footwear industry or of the Arezzo goldsmith sector or of Veneto exports or Apulian tourism were close to my heart and to my government, as my public initiatives and the numerous meetings with the Bank of Italy can testify, always held in the presence of collaborators and colleagues, such as Pier Carlo Padoan and Graziano Delrio”.
