A press release earlier this month announced the merger of three large consumer cooperatives, belonging to the League, coming together in the largest Italian and European configuration of this type of company. They are Coop Adriatica, Consumers North East, Coop Estense: the cooperative born from their merger is called Coop Alleanza 3.0.
The operation, illustrated by a few but significant numbers, is therefore far-reaching, with an impact on the distribution industry. He recalls the successful operation carried out a few years ago with the grouping under Hera of public utility companies, also of Emilian origin. We believe they are positive examples of consolidation, outside the banking world, because they are based on a clear industrial strategy.
But let's take a closer look at the above statement. There are illustrated lines of technological development, with the use of the web for the construction of e-commerce sites and lines of modernization of the physical commercial distribution network. But above all, significant weight is given to the financial services that the new entity will be able to give to the shareholders, thanks to the social loan and capital solidity of 2,2 billion euro, with corporate self-supervision bodies, to ensure transparency and security for the aforementioned financial services.
It seems to be witnessing, in all respects, the birth of a new bank, perhaps captive, but with assets which, if measured with the dimensional parameters of the credit system, would place it among the top fifteen Italian banks. Perhaps we should, even better, speak of the birth of a new platform, of a conglomerate with multiple activities (industrial, commercial and banking), according to a trend that is also forming in our economy in favor of Financial P2P (crowdfunding, internal payment circuits, etc.). All therefore to be read positively, in the sign of the structural renewals necessary for the recovery, after the longest crisis since the post-war period.
However, in the name of the principles of competition and putting aside for the moment the prerogative allowed to cooperative companies to collect savings from members, we feel like making a subdued request, also taking into account what the large electronic commerce platforms are doing, such as Amazon and Google, which have asked to become a bank.
In short, wouldn't it be appropriate for Coop Alleanza 3.0 to also request a banking license to continue to intermediate all that savings, even in innovative forms, sharing some of the regulation costs with the banking system? They appear to us to be increasingly relevant given that our Authorities seem determined to continue to add national ones to the unavoidable ones of Europe. AND, as Totò often reminded us, it is always the sum that makes the total.
