If the money of so many savers weren't involved, it would be laughable in the face of the constant fluctuations of ChiantiBanca, the largest CCB in Tuscany and the eighth by total asset in Italy, whose headquarters have been inspected in recent days by the Public Prosecutor's Office of Florence which investigates for false accounting and obstacle to supervision.
After an unbridled rush to acquisitions that led it in 2012 to take over the ruined Credito Fiorentino of Denis Verdini and in 2016 the competing banks Pistoia and Area Pratese, which ended up weighing down the balance enormously and raising more than one critical remark from the Supervisory of the Bank of Italy, immediately after the reform of the cooperative credit ChiantiBanca decided in 2016 to follow the path of the historic Bcc di Cambiano and to transform itself into a joint stock company. However, the project foundered when ChiantiBanca realized that the green light would never come from Via Nazionale.
Hence, in the spring 2017 assembly, Chiantibanca, with an authentic leap of faith, changed pace and surprisingly decided to stay in the area of cooperative credit and to join the Trentino group of Cassa Centrale Banca. But he also takes a leap in the dark by deciding to torpedo a banker of the caliber of Lorenzo Bini Smaghi who, as president, had begun the work of accounting and moral remediation of ChiantiBanca, which faces endless judicial tribulations as evidenced by the twenty suspects for obstacle to supervision and false accounting and inspection by the Florence Public Prosecutor's Office. But the Tuscan bank's zigzag path did not end there.
The new president of ChiantiBanca, Cristiano Iacopozzi, has convinced himself that Iccrea is better than Cassa Centrale and is preparing to convene a new shareholders' meeting to cancel the previous resolution and change horses. However, not all the partners-shareholders seem willing to play the role of puppets and are already announcing appeals. But the games seem done and the credibility of what was once a good local bank has disappeared for some time.
