The Mps scandal will be the stone guest at Forex in Bergamo which opens today. Among bankers, financial operators and journalists, the story of the Sienese bank will be at the center of discussions and in all likelihood addressed by the speech of the governor of the Bank of Italy Ignazio Visco, which will be held, however, tomorrow morning. Visco has already defended the work of Via Nazionale and also its predecessor Mario Draghi, now at the ECB, rejected the criticisms of omitted checks or negligence on the Monte speaking of frauds carried out by the former Siena management. Possible frauds to be discovered only with police powers that Bank of Italy does not currently have.
However against Monte, as evidenced by the document read in Parliament by the Minister of the Treasury Victor Grilli, inspections and pressure have been continuous in recent years leading to the exit of the previous leaders. Moral suasion and inspections that bankers from tomorrow to Forex know so well that over the years they have caused more than one grumbling for a defined control that is sometimes suffocating. Paradoxically, the action of the Bank of Italy itself is now being criticized by politicians and analysts for not having been made aware of the market and public opinion. In any case, the whole banking establishment defended the work of Via Nazionale and defined the system of controls as effective.
Certainly the new leaders of Siena Alessandro Profumo and Fabrizio Viola seem to have circumscribed the phenomenon of derivatives and defused the mines of onerous and opaque contracts signed by their predecessors. The 730 million losses recorded and the help of the Monti Bonds should avoid new earthquakes for MPS and stop any possible contagion in the bud. However, the sector, MPS aside, is not traveling in good waters. The growth of non-performing loans, the still persistent funding difficulties on the markets are compressing the credit available to households and businesses with a consequent slowdown of the economy in a negative spiral.
It should also be recognized that the situation has improved compared to recent months: the markets have stabilised, the spread has fallen but the hot climate of the elections and a 2013 of substantial recession make the picture fragile. Market operators, around 2000 are expected, know that it will be difficult to ask the next government for more favorable treatment, for example on the tax authorities; if anything, the opposite will be possible. And then the Mps affair uncovered another knot in the hold of the Italian banking system: the foundations. At Acri, President Guzzetti repeats that Siena is an isolated case and that only institutions have allowed banks to provide capital in times of need when institutional investors fled. However, the issue of the link between politics and banks has come back to the forefront of the debate and it is not excluded that some structures may be called into question.
