No more public interventions in support of the banks: Mps and Carige will have to meet the capital needs that emerged from the ECB stress tests with private resources. This was assured by Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan, speaking this morning at the Rome conference organized by ACRI on the occasion of the 90th World Savings Day.
"The residual capitalization needs of our system will be satisfied through the mobilization of private resources", said the number one of the Treasury, underlining however that the stress tests confirmed "the overall resilience of the Italian banking system despite the impact of the financial crisis and the longest recession since the post-war period”.
Padoan then recalled that since 2008 the Italian banking system has strengthened its capital by a total of 40 billion euros, 10 of which in the last year alone, while public support for institutions has not exceeded four billion euros, against the 260 billion spent by Germany, the 60 paid by Spain and the 40 offered by Greece.
According to the head of the Economy, the government's objective is rather to put investments at the center of the agenda: both internationally with the European task force set up during the Ecofin meeting in September, and domestically with a series of projects to be submitted to the EIB on various chapters, including ultra-broadband, the road network, the financing of business networks and the school plan.
“The government intends to strengthen the action of financial intermediaries and the supply of financing, acting on various instruments and sectors – continued the minister -. At the same time, it intends to support the demand for financing by soliciting investments from businesses”.
Even the permanent cut in the tax wedge "is a structural measure that requires significant resources - Padoan underlined - but which in turn will be effective to the extent that businesses decide it is appropriate to make new investments, also benefiting from a more favorable regulatory and institution and a more efficient public administration”.
Furthermore, on the subject of banking foundations, Padoan accepted the proposal launched shortly before by Giuseppe Guzzetti, president of Acri, who had asked to intervene on the framework law signed in 1999 by Carlo Azeglio Ciampi and Giuliano Amato, making some obligations more stringent.
In particular, Guzzetti had underlined that foundations must diversify their assets, while avoiding contracting debts and spending money on speculative investments: "We are available for a meeting on these issues when the Supervisory Authority deems it appropriate".
Also according to Padoan “among the projects to be carried out in the immediate future in the financial sector, it is also necessary to include a reflection on banking foundations. 15 years after the approval of the Ciampi law, it is possible to evaluate its long-term effects and also the aspects for which it may be appropriate to integrate it, which does not necessarily require a new regulatory intervention”.
