The tablet is also involved in the Sienese scuffle. "President, I have been robbed of my tablet", denounced the unfortunate small shareholder Romolo Semplici who rushed to the fiery extraordinary meeting of Monte dei Paschi convened for the Monti bond but overwhelmed by the Alexandria case. "It's a scandal that it's happening right here and it says a lot about this bank." Profumo's response was immediate: "I'm sorry, but this is not the fault of the bank but of its partners".
If the story of Monte were not grotesque the episode could make you smile. But is not so. The situation of the third largest bank in the country is dismaying: hidden derivatives, monstrous acquisitions (Antonveneta), operations so complex that they take months to unravel. And then there are the savers. “Many employees say that in the last few years they have converted at least part of their severance pay and productivity bonuses into MPS shares, on a proposal from the Bank itself. I did it myself”, said Bruno Valentini, Pd mayor of Monteriggioni, who as an employee and shareholder of the bank feels doubly cheated. Following the collapse of the MPS stock, some of them have lost up to 80% of the value of their Tfr.
Today they have flocked to Siena in force, led by the most combative branch by Beppe Grillo, Movimento 5 stelle, and by Oscar Boldrin, economist and exponent of the Stop the decline list. But also waiting for the members a garrison of the Northern League and one of the forces that support the Civil Revolution list of Ingroia and chants and leaflets against the Monte leadership but also against the former mayor of Siena and candidate of the centre-left in the next administrative elections Franco Ceccuzzi. The session began at about 9 with 34 speeches booked and in the middle of the afternoon, with the support of the MPS Foundation (“the choice of voting in favor is obligatory, to avoid problematic outcomes”), the delegation for the capital increase of 4,5 billion to allow the issue of the Monti bond loan of 3,9 billion, plus 2 billion in interest if the public bond is not repaid until 2018. The management has clarified that it will do everything to increase the profitability and therefore be able to repay the issue, arriving in February, within five years.
52,7% of the capital was present in the room. As regards the composition of the shareholder structure, there are no changes among the major shareholders of the bank, with the exception of Axa which holds 3,2% compared to the 2,5% which emerges from the Consob website. The Mps Foundation owns 34,9%, the Aleotti family 4% (Finamonte Srl), Unicoop Firenze 2,7% and JpMorgan 2,5%. On the Stock Exchange, after the collapse of recent days, the stock triggered a strong rebound: +10% to 0,257 euros per share with over 900 million shares traded, equal to almost 8% of the capital.
Rocca Salimbeni has become a political arena. Monti himself added fuel to the fire, underlining that "the Democratic Party has something to do with this matter" because "it has always had a lot of influence on the bank and on political life" in Siena. "I - however added the leader of the Civic Choice - are not here to attack Bersani, but the historical phenomenon of the mingling of banking and politics that must be further eradicated" because it is an "ugly beast". Bersani's reply: "He finds fault with the Democratic Party every day, while for a year I have never heard of them...". And for the Financial Times the seriousness of the situation was also underlined by the unusual descent into the financial arena of President Giorgio Napolitano.
As expected, there was no lack of question and answer between Grillo and Profumo. Speaking to the shareholders, the leader of the 5-star movement raised the alarm of "a hole in the accounts of 14 billion euros, an investigation must be opened immediately". Statement that immediately prompted the intervention of President Profumo who asked: “Tell me where does this indication come from? There is no hole here”. For Grillo, Monte's situation is worse than Parmalat and Tangentopoli.
The economist Boldrin's recipe leads to nationalization: “Montepaschi – he says – must first be nationalized and reorganized and then sold to a foreign entity in order to increase competition on the country's banking market”. To avoid proceeding with "some fusion". Also for Boldrin the Monte crisis "is the most serious of the existing ones, it is the tip of the iceberg". And among the small shareholders there are already those who dream of an "extraordinary prize for Mohammed". "I would be happy for an emir to come to Siena" to whom perhaps I could dedicate "an extraordinary prize for Mohammed", said Giampiero Maccari, shareholder and former employee of Banca Monte dei Paschi, speaking invoking new shareholders for the bank.
Finally, Boldrin is aiming straight for the Control Foundation: Mps is the symbol of an “Italian banking system that is far from being competitive and market-based. It is controlled without transparency: it is in the hands of the Foundation which has a non-transparent governance and in turn is controlled by the parties and local administrations. We are in an anomalous situation neither private nor public. In short, a strange system”.
And it is now an all against all. The president of Acri tries to distance himself from the accusations against the Mps Foundation, which call into question the age-old controversy over the control of the banking system by the foundations Joseph Guzzetti. “The statute of the MPS foundation is illegitimate because it does not comply with the Ciampi law – said Guzzetti at a Compagnia Sanpaolo event, underlining the fact that the foundation maintained control of the bank until the very end. In other words, the MPS statute "did not respect the principle that the public party should not have the majority": in the Sienese institution, on the other hand, of 15 members, 13 are publicly appointed and two are privately managed: one is the 'archbishop and one is the rector. Given these premises, for Guzzetti "the management and choices of that foundation were influenced by this relationship which prevented it from having a condition of balance and autonomy".
Also the president of the Mps Foundation, Gabriello Mancini, spoke at the meeting. Contested several times by the bank's shareholders, he retorted: "Don't shut me up, I'll read my speech anyway, we can stay here until tomorrow, I'm not asking for approval but just a little politeness, something that hasn't been here since this morning was". In his speech, Mancini said that the MPS Foundation "is determined to undertake all possible actions, including the liability action that the law reserves for it to protect its own interests and those of all shareholders".
For the moment we are waiting for full clarity to be made through ongoing analyses. CEO Viola reported that the analysis of derivative transactions will be closed in the first ten days of February. The top management said that at the moment it is not possible to provide punctual and updated data on derivatives and the bank is working on examining the exposure to the securities and derivatives portfolio.
The governor of the Bank of Italy, Ignazio Visco, from Davos does not foresee any "immediate action" on MPS. Via Nazionale has launched an investigation in collaboration with the judiciary, through very complex technical investigations. Next Tuesday Vittorio Grilli, Minister of the Economy will report in a hearing in Parliament.
