Frankfurt's eye peers into the accounts of 130 European banks, Of which 15 Italian. The European Central Bank announced the imminent launch of an in-depth procedure of analysis of the major lenders in the Eurozone, which together represent 85% of the sector. The operation was organized in view of the role of centralized supervisory authority that the ECB will have to assume. The analysis will start in November and will last 12 months. National supervisory authorities will be called upon to cooperate, together with independent third parties.
Here the list of Italian banks involved:
Carige Bank
- Monte dei Paschi di Siena
– Banca Piccolo Credito Valtellinese
– Banca Popolare Dell'Emilia Romagna
– Banca Popolare di Milano
– Banca Popolare di Sondrio
– Banca Popolare di Vicenza
– Popular Bank
– Credit Emiliano
– Iccrea Holding
- Intesa Sanpaolo
– Mediobanca
– UniCredit
– Union of Italian Banks
– Veneto Bank.
The investigation is divided into three parts: qualitative and quantitative analysis of the liquidity, financing and leverage risks present in the financial statements of credit institutions; assessment of the quality of the specific assets held (Asset quality review), which will increase transparency on their exposure to the various market segments at risk, in particular in relation to non-performing loans; new stress test to be conducted together with the EBA, for which it will be required to respect a minimum prudential capitalization threshold (Common Equity Tier 1) equal to 8% of total assets.
This whole procedure primarily serves to prevent the ECB from finding itself having to deal with nasty surprises when it assumes the role of central bank supervisor. With “transparency as the primary objective, we expect private sector confidence in the soundness of European banks to strengthen,” said Mario Draghi.
