In recent months "we have seen the hurricane approaching and we feared we could be in the eye of the storm" admits the CEO Intesa San Paolo Enrico Cucchiani. "Fortunately - he adds however - the storm seems to have moved away and we can now loosen the defenses". In other words, reopen the growth dossier, as businesses hope, especially the small and medium-sized ones that have suffered the most from the consequences of the toughest year. In reality, promises of this kind have not been lacking in the last year, marked by the slowdown in loans to businesses and households which the ECB president described as "frustrating".
But Cucchiani's outing does not seem ritualistic, if anything it confirms the feeling that a new chapter can be opened. After having paid "a sort of extraordinary insurance policy", comments the CEO, Intesa can assert "its capital solidity and a capital and liquidity position that is strengthening quarter after quarter". Likewise, the leaders of Unicredit they went so far as to launch a signal of optimism, which was out of place until a few months ago. “In a year, if cataclysms don't happen – he said Joseph Life, president in Piazza Cordusio – Unicredit's situation will be better”. "We have laid the foundations for a good recovery", added the CEO Federico Ghizzoni, abandoning the usual understatement.
Both institutions then they kept the appointment with the dividend firm, as seemed difficult not many months ago, also due to invitations from the Bank of Italy, worried about possible speculative attacks that could have shaken even the most solid banks. But both Intesa and Unicredit can now confirm the appointment with the coupon for 2013 : a new policy on the trust of shareholders and the market in view of a busy year in any case, under the banner of discussions within the EU on the supervision of banks and capital ratios.
In short, the situation is difficult, but scares less than a year ago. Which, paradoxically, risks raising the tone of the controversy: the bank accounts are improving, thanks to the support of the ECB. But this result fails to reflect on the stakeholders, families and client companies. What are the banks doing to deserve the oxygen supplied by Frankfurt? Does the shield of the "system bank" still make sense, the ones that led Ca'de Sass to lavish energy and capital at the bedside of Alitalia, Telco RCS not to mention Tassara? Or the efforts made by Unicredit to avoid the collapse of Fonsai before the intervention of Unipo?
From Cucchiani's reflections and Ghizzoni's attitude it seems to understand that, without too many proclamations, a season of the banking system has ended once and for all: enough with the "system bank" ready to perform a substitute function in emergencies; enough even with the nods to dirigisme that surfaced in Colbert's season of Tremonti thought, which accompanied the landslide MPS.
It will not be an easy or painless transition. Which Cucchiani, in assuming direct responsibility for the management of equity investments. He has shown that he is aware. The institute's CEO is averse to launching systemic proclamations: the institute's leadership is strengthened with a good example, not with "Italian" initiatives. In short, what matters is the execution: the structural reduction of costs, the increase in commissions. The important thing is to unload the new funds made possible by the intermediation activity in sustainable initiatives, motivated by business and not by the crossroads of power. It is not a simple step nor will it be an easy operation. Also because the crisis is far from over and the balance sheets are weighed down by suffering.
But, Cucchiani explained, at least the exceptional circumstances that suggested keeping one's guard up have disappeared: “ Intesa Sanpaolo's prudential policy continued in the first quarter in the light of the crisis in Cyprus and the long phase necessary for the appointment of the in Italy". And for these reasons, explains the CEO Enrico Cucchiani, the group "has decided to maintain an additional extraordinary liquidity reserve of 20 billion euro, sustaining an opportunity cost of 100 million euro in the first quarter alone". A prudent attitude, perhaps too cautious, judging with hindsight, in any case "objectively expensive". “Despite the evidence of a tangible improvement in the dynamics of the new non-performing credit flows – underlined Cucchiani – the bank has decided to increase the degree of coverage on non-performing loans by 150 million euro, in evident contrast with the general practice of market". Today these availabilities can be remitted, gradually. in the circuit of the real economy. No less exceptional is the turn of Unicredit: in 2012 the bank reduced the funding gap affecting the most international Italian credit group of 33 billion. In the meantime, despite the lack of banking union preventing the group from expressing all its energies, Unicredit has returned to making profits in Italy.
In short, there are problems. But the system moves. Between governance problems and fragility typical of the Italian case. But with a perspective that, we hope, will soon translate into strategic operations in Italy and above all outside. It's time for Made in Italy to return to acting as a major global player in the bank.
