The European Commission has received sufficient information from the European Central Bank regarding the preventive recapitalization of Monte dei Paschi. Thanks to them, Brussels will therefore be able to continue evaluating the restructuring plan of the Sienese bank.
“We have received the answers to our questions about Montepaschi from the ECB e this allows us to move forward”. This is what was stated by the EU commissioner for competition, Margrethe Vestager who also reassured spirits on the absence of disagreements with the European supervisory authority at the ECB, the SSM.
“We have different responsibilities. The cooperation with the SSM of the ECB has been very important for us to ensure that we have the right basis. And it must be the supervisory authority who tells us what the bank's fundamentals are. The SSM has answered our questions and this ”, he said during a press conference in Brussels,“ allows us to move forward ”.
We recall that after the failure of the 5 billion euro capital increase carried out in December, Monte dei Paschi was forced to request help from the state. However, the latter's intervention must be authorized by the ECB and by the EU Commission itself. For this reason, the Brussels Competition Authority had asked the Eurotower to provide more details on the decision to establish the increase in the amount of the capital increase, which in the meantime has gone from 5 to 8,8 billion euros.
Vestager stressed the need for proceed with lead feet on the MPS case given that with the precautionary recapitalization of the Sienese bank "we set a precedent on the basis of which we will operate, for which - he clarified - we must be very careful to respect the letter and the spirit of the rules and do an appropriate job"
Meanwhile, in Siena the management of the institute is working on the draft plan and on the problem of non-performing loans. Based on reports from Milano Finanza, the top management would intend to sell a package of gross non-performing loans for an amount of 28 billion euros at a price of less than 25% of the gross value and contacts have already been initiated with some specialized funds.
