Giuseppe Guzzetti, former Christian Democrat senator and noble father of banking foundations, will be confirmed today for the fourth time as president of Acri, the association that brings together the Foundations and Savings Banks. Guzzetti, who is also chairman of the very strong Cariplo and as such a significant shareholder of Intesasanpaolo, took over the presidency of Acri in 200 and since then has been the engine and guarantor of the development and growth of the Foundations, conceived by Giluliano Amato and regulated by the Ciampi law. For a long time doubts about Foundations dominated the public scene in doubt that these somewhat hybrid entities would become the Trojan horse of the parties in the banks. The wisdom and balance of characters like Guzzetti have avoided this drift and transformed the Foundations into long-term institutional investors.
In Intesasanpaolo as in Unicredit, not to mention Mps (where the foundation is indeed very permeated by local politics but is also a case in its own right), the Foundations have accompanied the growth of groups that have become large national banking entities and in some international case. Under the guidance of Guzzetti, who was able to wage a merciless battle against the then Minister Tremonti only to reconcile when the Constitutional Court ruled in favor of the Foundations and recognized their nature as private law entities, Acri also joined the transformation and growth of Cassa depositi e prestiti with a 30% stake and the expression of a president in the person of Franco Bassanini.
However, the crisis cut off the foundations' legs because the storm that hit the banks reduced their dividends and also those of the Foundations which now find themselves short of resources to distribute in the territory in the form of disbursements. And it is precisely this change of scenery that raises a doubt that has always accompanied the growth of the Foundations: as long as the generation of figures with great foresight like Guzzetti are in charge, there are no problems, but what will happen after that? Will the Foundations be able to keep politics away? The Charter of Foundations launched by Guzzetti to better define the rights and duties of the administrators of institutions and regulate incompatibilities is a way of getting ahead. But, unfortunately, the doubt remains because even in the Foundations more than the rules it is the people who make the difference and Guzzetti for the moment is not seen by others, even if sometimes the future reserves happy surprises.
