Ops Unicredit on Banco Bpm reopens the game in the banking world and reveals its vitality but politics should stop interfering

First the blitz of Unicredit su Commerz, then the rise of the Bpm bank in Anima and in Monte dei Paschi, where they also grow Caltagirone and Dolphin even if now everything is back to sea, and finally, the launch of the Ops of Andrea Orcell on Banco Bpm of Joseph Chestnut. We have to go back half a century to see a whirlwind like the one that is animating Italian banks today. It is anything but a petrified forest as it once was. Exactly on March 21, 1999, the Italian banking world was shaken by the launch of the Unicredit takeover bid on Comit and of Sanpaolo-Imi on Banca di Roma. In the immediate aftermath, nothing was done because of the obtuse dirigism and rigid protectionism of the Governor of Bank of Italy, Antonio Fazio, blocked both operations. But it didn't take long to see two banking champions like Intesa and Unicredit grow even if on inverted fields. It was the sign of the vitality of the Italian banking system that Fazio thought he could harness. Today the situation is a little different because the Italian banking system has grown, it is solid and vital and wants to grow further. And also because it has found four knights of rank like Charles Messina in Intesa Sanpaolo, Andrea Orcel in Unicredit, Giuseppe Castagna in Banco Bpm and Louis Lovaglio in Mps who know what they are doing and whose only guiding star is the growth, profitability and innovation of their banks in the exclusive interest of shareholders and stakeholders and with beneficial effects on the Italian GDP. But today, as then, the risks for the Italian financial system are not lacking, even if this time they do not come from Via Nazionale but from the Government. Emblematic are the acid reactions of the Northern League leader Matteo Salvini in the face of Unicredit's takeover bid for Banco Bpm but also those of the Minister of Economy, Giancarlo Giorgetti, for the repercussions of Orcel's move on Mps, where by virtue of the passivity rule, the game will reopen. But the key point is another and lies in the iron axis that the Meloni government has made a deal with the Roman builder and financier Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone with whom he wrote the horrendous Capital bill which risks causing an earthquake and tying up two financial giants like Generali and Mediobanca. It is a poorly thought out and even worse written law, which threatens to drive international capital away from Italy and separate our country from the best practices of international finance with a narrow interpretation of the rules on the list of Boards of Directors for the renewal of corporate management in the spring. In theory, there is time to remedy and correct the distortions of the law with the lightning consultation of the Consob there would still be, but the plenipotentiary of Prime Minister Meloni and of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the undersecretary Federico Freni, doesn't want to know. "We listen to everyone but we decide". Well done Freni, but if capital flees and savers pay the price, who pays? The square-minded undersecretary of the Brothers of Italy? Instead of flexing our muscles, perhaps it would be better to think. Hoping that it won't be considered a luxury.