Who hurts from the bank, perishes from the bank. The Carige case continues to hold court, but from finance the question also extends to politics. After the government's decision to intervene to save the bank through an emergency decree passed on January 7 by the Council of Ministers, the controversies were not long in coming, with the former prime ministers, Matteo Renzi and Paolo Gentiloni, attacking the government.
In the meantime, however, they have also arrived the first moves of the three extraordinary commissioners appointed by the ECB, Pietro Modiano, Fabio Innocenzi and Raffaele Lener, who announced the guidelines of the recovery plan.
THE ACCUSATIONS OF RENTI AND GENTILONI
“Ten minutes of a night meeting of the Council of Ministers were enough to deny five years of insults and lies against us. Matteo Salvini and Luigi Di Maio just have to be ashamed ”, he writes on Facebook Matthew Renzi, who also publishes a video in which he increases the dose: “Salvini and Di Maio must be ashamed of what they have said for years and years against us. They must be ashamed of the offenses and insults. They defrauded the Italians by telling untrue stories about us: on the Tav, on the Tap, on the Ilva, on the drills... Now even on the banks. That's right, you can fool someone for life and you can fool everyone just once. But you can't fool everyone all your life. With the story of yesterday's banks, Salvini and di Maio simply have to write the word shame".
With more calm tones but with greater sarcasm, also his successor at Palazzo Chigi. Paolo Gentiloni he has his say on Twitter: “#Carige the government intervenes in support of the bank. Well. I remember the shouting about "gifts to bankers" when we spoke. Now I just wish prudence and seriousness. Propaganda and alarmism are very dangerous”.
#Carige the government intervenes in support of the bank. Well. I remember the shouting about "gifts to bankers" when we spoke. Now I just wish prudence and seriousness. Propaganda and alarmism are very dangerous
- Paolo Gentiloni (@PaoloGentiloni) 8 January 2019
The Deputy Prime Minister replies to the two, Matteo Salvini who tries to highlight the differences between the decree approved yesterday by the Government and the measures approved by the previous executives, with a defense which, however, is not entirely convincing: "While Renzi and Boschi ignored and forgotten the savers, we immediately intervened with them defense without doing favors to banks, foreigners or friends of friends. The action to protect Ligurian and Italian savers is good and the one and a half billion allocated in maneuver for the other defrauded citizens is good ".
THE COMMISSIONERS' DECISIONS
While the question and answer of the main political exponents continues, the commissioners of Banca Carige announce the first moves aimed at saving the Ligurian bank. Through a note, the same institute lets it be known that the commissioners “are in the process of request the activation of the state guarantee on the issue of bonds in order to ensure the stability of medium-term funding in the current transition phase, benefiting from the decree law approved on Monday by the Council of Ministers".
We recall that the provision provides for the possibility for the bank to access forms of public liquidity support which consist in the granting by the Ministry of the Economy and Finance of the State guarantee on newly issued liabilities or on loans disbursed at the discretion of the Bank of 'Italy. Simply put, the Government has granted the public guarantee to the issues of new bonds as was done by the Renzi and Gentiloni governments in the past with the Veneto banks: Popular Bank of Vicenza carried out a bond issue with a State guarantee for a total amount of 3 billion euros, with a coupon of 0,5% and maturing on 3 February 2020. Veneto Banca, the other bank in the Veneto region in difficulty, has been authorized to issue 3,5 billion euros of bonds with a state guarantee. a total, 6,5 billion bonds to meet their liquidity needs.
Returning to Carige, in the event that the issue of bonds guaranteed by the State were not enough, the Executive would intervene directly in the shareholding structure, following the same path taken for Mps. However, the latter, underline the commissioners “is to be considered as a further measure to protect customers, to be activated as entirely residual hypothesis“. Brussels also expressed its opinion on the matter: "What we can say is that we take note of the adoption of this decree and that we are in contact with Italy, and we are ready to discuss the applicability of the instruments on the basis of European regulations". This was stated by the first spokesperson of the European Commission, Margaritis Schinas when questioned on the measures launched yesterday by the government in support of Banca Carige.
Going back to the moves announced today, 8 January, the commissioners announced a meeting held on 7 January with the heads of the Voluntary Intervention Scheme of the Interbank deposit protection fund during which a proposal was presented aimed at laying the foundations for the redefinition of the conditions of the subordinated loan of 320 million subscribed by the fund. It was also decided to start a due diligence on Carige's NPEs to arrive at a percentage between 5% and 10% of the total credits. A further reduction is therefore envisaged after the one of 1,5 billion already made.
Carige, explains the institute, “has the objective of reducing the weight of NPEs without significant impacts on the capital ratios in analogy with the market operations that have just been finalized. In fact, thanks to the provisions that have implemented the indications of the ECB and in line with the results of the latest operations on UTPs and Carige's non-performing loans, an attempt will be made to have an impact between any new provisions and the reduction of risk weighted assets such as not to alter if not marginally the capital ratios envisaged in the capital conservative plan”. Some of the main Italian and foreign operators will be invited to the due diligence.
Carige finally communicated that the new business plan will be presented by the end of February, a plan that "could envisage a credible path not only from the point of view of operational sustainability but also, and above all, in terms of attractiveness with a view to aggregation".
