Il Spanish government has authorized theBank takeover bid of the bbva on Banco Sabadell but the merger can only take place in three years, possibly extendable. Now it will be up to the board of the Banco de Bilbao to decide whether to continue the hostile takeover bid or consider the conditions set by the Suarez Government which are, moreover, different from those indicated by the Antitrust and which aim to freeze jobs and strengthen the power of the State over the banks.
Regardless of the merits of the conditions for authorising the takeover bid, one thing appears clear from Moncloa's pronouncement: that even Spain and even a left-wing government cannot resist the fever of statism which has been lurking in European banking systems for some time, as he has admirably written Rony Hamaui on FIRSTonline: “Banking Risk: The State Risks Being the Big Winner, and Not Only in Italy“. Statism has already hit Germany, Portugal and Italy where the government's forceful interventions against the Ops of Unicredit on Bpm bank and in support of the Ops Ps su Mediobanca it is there for all to see and will probably influence the final outcome of the Italian game of risk, ending up involving the independence of the Generali.
The problem, however, is not to acknowledge that "everyone does it" but to evaluate whether the State's intervention in the game of risk strengthens the banking system or alters it by exposing it to the winds of politics and the electoral interests of the parties. The aberrant application of the Golden power to Unicredit's takeover bid on Banco Bpm speaks clearly and makes us regret the times when the outcome of a takeover bid was decided only by the supervisory authorities and the market. But today's is the so-called "new world" that under the false shield of national savings security - as if Italian government bonds were not largely in the hands of foreign investors who we hope will not change their minds - legitimises partisan interventions for political purposes. O tempora, o mores.
