“I am worried that there is a list of candidates presented by the unions with an operation brought down from above, from the Palace, to normalize the bank. Normalization which perhaps means making it remain Popular but uniting it with another Popular”. Thus Piero Lonardi, candidate for the presidency of the supervisory board of Banca Popolare di Milano, warns of the dangers for the independence of the institution represented, according to him, by a possible victory of the list competing against him, led by Piero Garden. “This normalization – he added – would be the end of the Bpm”.
"The leaders of the others (Giarda, ed) – Lonardi attacked again – has already taken Popolare di Lodi to another bank and with enormous damage to the shareholders". "Moreover, in this case - said Lonardi - the merger with another Popolare would be the perfect game for the unions and at the same time for some other banks that with the merger with Bpm would settle their accounts". Lonardi's words come on a sluggish day already tending towards the negative for the share of Banca Popolare di Milano in Piazza Affari, where shortly after 16 pm it lost 0,14% to 0,428 euro.
