La counter-reform of the CCBs, advocated by the League and also supported by the Five Stars through the amendments to the tax decree to make only membership of national holdings is optional of cooperative credit in the name of a misunderstood banking sovereignty, could become yet another boomerang for the Conte government. Above all if, in addition to overcoming the mutual banks' obligation to join the three parent holding companies, the bizarre idea of Minister Grillino Fraccaro, fortunately blocked by Minister Tria, were to take shape, who hypothesizes sterilize the spread effect on the mutual banks, changing accounting standards and increasing litigation with Europe.
Il freezing of the Bank of Italy, which made its clear dissent towards the counter-reform filter, due to the risk it entails more than twenty mutual banks are in danger without the life preserver of the national groups, and the alarm raised by Federcasse and Confcooperative seem to induce the Government to reconsider.
Federcasse e Confcooperativealbeit in diplomatic language, they sent word to the Government not to interrupt the implementation of the reform and the establishment of the three holding companies (Iccrea, Cassa Centrale Banca and Raiffeisen) to which the 280 mutual banks will have to join, because there is the risk of a general derailment of cooperative credit and the commissioning of the weakest if not adequately supported by an aggregation that acts as a shield.
The thirty Cassa Centrale Banca thinks the same way. But it is the "non possumus" of the Bank of Italy that weighs the most. It is no mystery that the Renzi reform of the Bcc, as well as that of the popular banks, was born by the solicitation of the institute of Via Nazionale to secure the cooperative credit banks, some virtuous but many on the verge of receivership either because they are undercapitalised or because they are swollen with non-performing loans. The aggregation in the three national holdings – originally there was to be only one on the model of the French Credit Agricole – it had and must serve precisely to save the whole industry and the fact that supervision of the parent companies is the responsibility of the ECB and of the individual BCCs of the Bank of Italy makes sense to strictly monitor the health of cooperative credit, even if this has given rise to endless stomach aches on the part of the most little ones, who fear they won't pass the vigilante exams.
It's right on malaise of small banks, especially in the North, which leveraged the League to launch its counter-offensive. But now Prime Minister Conte himself, after warnings from the Bank of Italy and a large part of the holding companies, seems to be concerned about it and at a summit held yesterday evening at Palazzo Chigi the hypothesis of a rethinking and a substantial reverse on the counter-reform.
This is why many CCBs, before deciding what to do, i.e. whether to join the parent companies or remain alone in the next few days, prefer to understand what the final outcome of this whole game will be and verify concretely what the text of the amendments to the tax decree will be will it really be approved by Parliament and whether membership of national holdings will become truly optional or remain mandatory as it is now.
In short, a nice rebus, which the stability of the world of cooperative credit really didn't need.
