And the day came when the grillini saved the banks. After going back on many promises bandied about during the electoral campaign (Ilva, TAP, Tav, Terzo Valico), Di Maio had to bite the bullet: put public money to avoid the bankruptcy of Banca Carige, acknowledging that a bank is of fundamental importance importance for savers and for local companies which, without it, would risk having to close.
Beyond the controversies of the opposition parties, starting with PD heavily insulted by the grillini for past decisions to intervene in the banking sector, they result the statements of the exponents of the current government are pathetic to try to demonstrate that this time everything is different, that bankers are not saved, only savers and that in any case no public money has been spent. The usual tactic of raising a fuss to hide the truth.
In reality the state guarantee on the issue of bonds by the bank in difficulty had already been used for the Venetian banks and had failed to avoid the subsequent termination procedure. And in any case, the guarantees will also have to be recorded in the state budget and will contribute to increasing the public debt. Furthermore, the press release issued at the end of the Council of Ministers, also hinting at the possibility of a state intervention itself in subscribing to a possible capital increase (precautionary recapitalization) risks creating credibility problems for the bank itself, driving away any savers from intervening both by subscribing bonds and new shares.
Banks are delicate bodies in which credibility and trust are fundamental assets. Instead, the current government gives the impression of acting only on the spur of the emergency, taking a possibility for granted, such as that of precautionary recapitalization which can only be approved by Brussels under precise conditions to be assessed from time to time.
In the case of Carige, has the negotiation with the authorities of the European Commission already been made, or has it yet to begin, as appears from a statement from the Community authorities themselves? The Carige commissioners, appointed by the ECB, state that the best way is to sell the remaining non-performing loans still in the belly of the bank, stop the bleeding of deposits and then find a private partner with whom to get married. But once the credibility of the bank is undermined, it is not an easy path. How many savers will continue to keep an account in Carige? And will the EU authorities give the go-ahead for the recapitalization by the Italian state or, as happened with the Veneto banks, will it have to go bankrupt?
In any case, contrary to what Salvini said, will the small private shareholders who still hold 58% of the bank's capital and who have already lost 90% of their investment have to be compensated or not? And in the latter case, why will the shareholders of the Veneto banks and of the other four banks in Tuscany and the Marches be able to access the fund just set up with the latest budget law and these in Genoa not? And then, dear Salvini, isn't this billion and a half allocated made up of public money, that is, of all citizens, used to benefit those who bought shares in banks that ended badly? And all the other small savers who have bought bank shares and who have certainly suffered heavy losses in recent years because they are not worthy of public protection?
A tangle of issues certainly difficult to untangle. And yet it is not with this system that the problem can be solved the safety of the banking system which is essential not only for the tranquility of savers but also to make financing of the production system fluid and plentiful, especially in a system like ours based on small and medium-sized enterprises that are very dependent on banks for their financial needs.
As Professor Marcello Messori has illustrated several times, it would take competence and farsightedness to fix this crucial sector of our economy. That is, it would have been better to intervene in time so as to encourage the restructuring and unification of our banks so as to make them more efficient, more solid and more capable of providing services and financing to the production system. But the pressure of the populist opposition has prevented past governments from preparing rules of a structural nature, while the current yellow-green government cannot even see the problem, so much so its objective is that of an autarkic and archaic country where instead of of the financial market and banks operating in competition, it will be sufficient to have a single public bank to give money to those who are (politically) deserving of credit. Long live happy degrowth!
