Agenda Monti, budget rigor and reforms: this was the substantially unanimous orientation that emerged from the Savings Day promoted as always by ACRI (the association of banking foundations) and which once again confronted the Minister of Economy, Vittorio Grilli, the Governor of the Bank of Italy, Ignazio Visco, the president of Abi, Giuseppe Mussari, and the president of Acri himself, Giuseppe Guzzetti.
Italy - Grilli said in his speech - will continue to do its part to win the confidence of the markets, i.e. budget rigor and continuous reforms, but unfortunately the results will not be forthcoming because they must take into account the international context of recession o strong slowdown in which we are inserted. Naturally this raises the problem of thinking of measures that have effects on growth even in the short term and in particular a reduction in taxes on labor and on companies (to which the stability law, albeit in a limited and not without contradictions way, begins to boot).
But perhaps the main novelty expressed, between the lines, by the Minister of the Economy is the greater awareness of the urgency of a growth strategy at European level with the adoption of a golden rule, which excludes expenditure from the budget parameters of the States for public investment.
Beyond budgetary policies and reforms, an essential part of a new growth strategy will, as always, belong to the banks. On this the Governor of the Bank of Italy illustrated the lights and shadows starting from the consideration that today savings in Italy are below the European average and that the dynamics of loans remains negative while the cost of loans to businesses "is still higher than that of Germany” and credit quality is deteriorating. However - Visco was keen to underline - the banking system, while paying for the long recession, has remained far from the excesses of other countries and maintains its solidity. This does not rule out the possibility – whether or not the launch of Basel 3 is postponed – that credit institutions will have to continue strengthening their capital, reducing dividends and compensation to top managers and above all they will have to drastically cut costs to raise efficiency. Banks and Foundations are willing to do their part and this is a good sign.
Particularly significant, also for its repercussions on the next electoral campaign, was the speech by the president of ABI, Mussari, who asked "all those who are candidates to lead the country to dispel any doubts about the firm adherence to public finance objectives traced at European level and at the points that most qualified the action of the Monti Government” without “cultivating illusions that would lead us back to the abyss”.
Mussari also said he was willing to immediately sign a "high agreement" on productivity with the unions but warned that "new tax levies would be unsustainable" and that the banks expect the deductibility of credit losses in addition to postponing the rules until better times of Basel 3. Finally, the proposal to rediscover the land records to support the real estate market and the development of infrastructures is original.
Even the Foundations will continue to play their part, assured the president of ACRI, Guzzetti, who warmly defended the Foundations from somewhat coarse attacks such as the recent ones by the economist Zingales, who usually lectures Italy while spending a large part of his time in the US. In addition to supporting the banks, the Foundations - added Guzzetti - greatly appreciate the action of the Cassa depositi e prestiti, and in particular of the president Bassanini and the CEO Gorno Tempini, and are ready to remain through the conversion of the preferred shares on condition that "this is done by applying the law" and that is, at non-punitive prices.
