Basel 3, Mussari: optimism for the ABI proposal on SMEs

The weighting of the credits of small and medium-sized enterprises must not suffer penalties: this is the only proposed change to Basel 3 presented by ABI, the Cooperative Alliance and the Italian business network. "We had a meeting a few days ago with Commissioner Michel Barnier - said Giuseppe Mussari, president of ABI, on the sidelines of the regional assembly of construction cooperatives in Florence - so that the weighting of SME credits does not suffer a penalty". It is not yet known how many chances there are that the proposal will be accepted, but, according to the president of ABI, "if we go in this direction, we can only express satisfaction". As for the controversy sparked by Moody's in recent days, Mussari believes that some behaviors of rating agencies "are not appropriate" and that "some assessments, especially qualitative ones" are not convincing. According to the president, it would take "a discipline both on the way they do their job and a discipline on potential conflicts of interest".