The government intervenes to save Banca Carige. On Monday evening, the Council of Ministers approved a decree which allows the Ligurian bank to access forms of public liquidity support. The network consists of State guarantees on newly issued bonds and loans disbursed at the discretion of the Bank of Italy.
"In close collaboration with the Community institutions - writes the government - the guarantees provided will be granted in full compliance with the legislation on state aid".
A direct intervention of the State in the capital is also possible - as has already happened for MPS - but only if it becomes necessary and at the request of the extraordinary commissioners. In the Legislative Decree on Carige, "in consideration of the results of the recent stress exercise to which the Bank was subjected, the possibility is also envisaged for the Institute to access, through a specific request, a public recapitalization for precautionary purposes, aimed at preserving compliance with all capital ratios even in hypothetical scenarios of particular severity and highly improbable (so-called adverse stress test scenarios)".
However, nationalization is a last resort: the main road remains the search for a market solution, or a purchaser or a new controlling shareholder for the Bank. In fact, the Government underlines its intention to favor "a merger operation that allows the bank to be relaunched, to the benefit of customers". Only in case of failure of this option again will the public umbrella open. Before Christmas a 400 million capital increase for Carige was skipped due to the step back of the Malacalzas, the majority shareholders.
The Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, said that "the decree intervenes to offer the broadest guarantees of protection of the rights and interests of savers of Banca Carige, so as to allow the recently established Extraordinary Administration to pursue the process of asset consolidation and relaunch of the activities of the banking company”.
The vice-premier Luigi Di Maio he added that “Italian banks pay the price for a supervisory system of the ECB which must be equipped with strengthened instruments of control and intervention. We will always be on the side of savers and current account holders – he added – always”.
