Bad story that of Bff Bank, from many points of view. And some surprises are yet to come. Today the value of the stock is at 7,41 euros, down by 32,39%, while yesterday in the middle of the session, before the collapse, it was at 12 euros. In an attempt to stem the prices, the Italian Stock Exchange has announced that from today's session "until a subsequent provision" the placing of orders without price limits (best orders) will not be permitted on BFF Bank ordinary shares.
Here's to the dividends from Bank of Italy, but not only that
The signal came yesterday loud and clear from the Bank of Italy itself when it announced that the financial company must temporarily suspend la profit distribution. And it doesn't happen often that a bank comes into direct conflict with the Supervisory Authority. The first useful opportunity to remunerate members is the interim dividend in September and in the meantime the institute makes it known that "the dividend policy will not change".
That something strange was happening could be understood from the fact that the offices of the bank, specialized in the disinvestment of non-recourse credits towards the public administration, had been invaded for days by inspectors of Via Nazionale who wanted to shed light on the methods of classification of receivables from the Public Administration.
I reliefs they should finish by July and waiting for Bff to produce the findings with respect to what emerged, Bankitalia has ordered that the institution must not only temporarily refrain from distributing profits or other elements of assets, but also suspend the payment of the variable part of the remunerations, the further expansion ofoperations abroad through the opening of new branches or the expansion into new countries under the provision of services regime. The company operates not only in Italy, but also in Croatia, the Czech Republic, France, Greece, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain.
From Palazzo Koch also findings on governance, remuneration and CEO contract
On the occasion of the publication of the first quarter accounts, yesterday the bank led by Massimo Belingheri announced that on 29 April it had received a "report with the results of the investigations conducted by the Bank of Italy". Palazzo Koch also made comments on the governance and the bank's business practices in relation to remuneration, also for some contractual provisions relating to ceo. The inspection concluded with "the formalization of a compliance finding on the current classification of public loans, regardless of the representation of a related credit risk, which are based on an interpretation of the EBA guidelines of the new definition of default on such public credits different from that adopted by Bff".
The governor Fabio Panetta, in his speech on Forex, had indicated that the supervisor would initiate checks in various institutions under his direct supervision on some budgetary parameters. At the end of the year Bankitalia took charge of the newborn Smart Bank.
The shareholders of Bff Bank
It is the CEO Massimo Belingheri himself who has the largest share (4,821%) of the company. In the capital there are also Jp Morgan (3,158%), Eurizon (2,31%), Mediolanum pharmaceuticals (2,291%) and then with shares under 2% there are Fmr Investment manager, Lazard, Fideuram, Arca Fondi, Mediolanum.
Profits down 21% in the first quarter
On the financial front, Bff announced that it closed the first quarter with an adjusted net profit of 41,5 million, down 21% year on year. Excluding the 19,8 million capital gain in 2023 with the sale of 600 million of a portfolio of variable rate government bonds, there would instead be an increase of 8%. Total adjusted revenues stood at 202,4 million, +15%, while the credit portfolio amounted to 5,5 billion, +9%. The Cet1 ratio reached 13,5% and the Tcr 18,2%, with 49 million of excess capital over the 12% Cet1 target.
BFF believes that the possible increase in risk-weighted assets (RWA) and prudential provisions that could arise will not lead to a substantial change in its economic and financial prospects, also taking into account the reserves not yet accounted for and the management actions that may be put on the ground.
