The banking decree is law: the Chamber of the Chamber approved it definitively on Wednesday with 287 votes in favour, 173 against and 3 abstentions. The go-ahead for the question of confidence in the measure had arrived on Tuesday.
1. REFUNDS TO FRAUDED NOTEHOLDERS
The text, approved by the Government at the end of April, regulates compensation to savers defrauded by the four institutions for which the resolution procedure was triggered last November: Banca delle Marche, Banca Popolare dell'Etruria e del Lazio, Cassa di Risparmio di Ferrara and CariChieti.
In particular, the bank decree guarantees automatic compensation equal to 80% of the amount lost with the subordinated bonds of the four banks, but only to former bondholders with total income of less than 35 thousand euros (referring to Irpef income and not to gross income, 2014 and not 2015) or movable assets of less than 100 thousand euros.
The investor must attach the contract for the purchase of the subordinated financial instruments to the redemption request; subscription or purchase order forms; the attestation of the orders executed and a declaration on the consistency of the movable assets. Alternatively, it is still possible to choose the path of arbitration.
The Consumers Union does not like precisely this possibility of choice: "It is unacceptable to force him to play Russian roulette, choosing in advance whether to renounce his rights, accepting 80% of what he has lost, or to play the arbitration lottery, hoping to win. A shameful prisoner's dilemma,” says President Massimiliano Dona.
2. NON-POSSESSORY SECURITIES
Furthermore, the provision introduces new guarantees that will allow institutions to speed up credit recovery, but will also help companies in difficulty to access credit. These are, in particular, the non-possessory movable pledge and the "Marcian Pact".
The first measure represents a credit guarantee in which the debtor, unlike in the possessory pledge, does not take possession of the movable property.
3. MARCIAN PACT
The Marcian pact, on the other hand, provides for the possibility that the loan granted by a bank is guaranteed by the transfer in favor of the lender of the ownership of a property or other real estate right. Among the changes introduced with the vote of confidence in the Senate, there was the passage from six to nine of the months envisaged for qualifying the debtor's default.
Furthermore, the term is extended to 12 months if the loan equal to at least 85% of the principal amount has already been repaid. It remains possible to apply the measure also to contracts already in force at the date of entry into force of the provision.
