The Treasury, which will hold 70% of Monte dei Paschi, does not change the top management of the Sienese bank and confirms Alessandro Falciai as president and Marco Morelli as CEO. This is the result of the presentation of the Treasury's list for the appointments to be approved by the Bank's shareholders' meeting on 18 December.
Until the day before, it seemed that the Minister of Economy, Pier Carlo Padoan, wanted to designate the director general of the Treasury, Vincenzo La Via, as president of MPS, but in the end nothing came of it, perhaps also due to the unavailability of the person concerned.
There will be 15 seats on the new Monte board of directors: 12 will be appointed by the Treasury and three by Generali, which hold 4% after having strengthened their position with the forced conversion of the subordinated bond. Generali will thus be able to keep an eye on relations between MPS and Axa, a long-time partner of the Sienese bank.
The lists filed are as follows:
List no. 1 presented by the Ministry of Economy and Finance:
- candidates for Statutory Auditor: Raffaella Fantini and Paolo Salvadori
- candidate for the office of alternate auditor: Carmen Regina Silvestri
- candidates for the Council: Alessandro Falciai, Marco Morelli, Antonino Turicchi, Maria Elena Cappello, Stefania Bariatti, Salvatore Fernando Piazzolla, Nicola Maione, Roberto Lancellotti, Giuseppina Capaldo, Angelo Riccaboni, Michele Santoro and Fiorella Kostoris
List no. 2 presented by Generali Investments Europe SpA - Asset management company, on behalf of the shareholders Genertellife SpA, Alleanza Assicurazioni SpA and Generali Italia SpA
- candidates for the Council: Marco Giorgino, Stefania Petruccioli and Giorgio Valerio
- candidate for Statutory Auditor: Elena Cenderelli
- candidate for the office of alternate auditor: Daniele Federico Monarca
Today Falciai and Morelli are also heard by the parliamentary commission of inquiry into the banks in relation to the crisis which overwhelmed Monte in recent years after the acquisition of Antonveneta. "The progressive deterioration of the environmental framework" following the constitutional referendum of 4 December 2016 blew up the MPS capital increase. CEO Morelli supported this in a hearing before the Banking Commission, recalling that the ECB's refusal to extend the operation to January also had a significant weight in order to better allow investors a more complete assessment of the political situation. “The request for an extension to January 20 – added the CEO – would have allowed investors to evaluate the absence of changes in the political framework and a more favorable period compared to the last days of Christmas”. This request was not accepted by the ECB and paved the way for the precautionary recapitalization at the expense of the State.
“As of last September 30, 11 billion in terms of deposits were recovered on a geographical basis. The recovery is linked to SMEs and the corporate sector more than to savers. The trend we are observing is this”, added Morelli in a hearing before the Banking Commission. When asked about the staff reduction plan, the MPS CEO also underlined that the plan provides for a “cut of 4.800 resources through the redundancy fund. In 2017, 1.800 releases were completed while the rest is spread between 2018 and 2021". Still on the restructuring plan, Morelli reported that the 5 July plan provides for the closure of 600 branches. After the 2017 closures, he said, a further "115 closures are expected in the first quarter of 2018, 20 of which in Tuscany."
Finally, as regards the replacement of management, the CEO of the Sienese bank underlined that today in the bank there is "nobody left in the front line of management" who played a role in the controversial Alexandria, Fresh, etc. operation. "Not even in the second line of management is there anyone who played a decisive role in those operations", concluded Morelli.
