"I have not authorized anyone and no one has asked me for authorisation: the responsibility for the banking sector lies with the Finance Minister, who usually talks about it with the Prime Minister". Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said this during a hearing before the Banking Commission of Inquiry. The number one of the Treasury answered a question from Senator Andrea Augello on the involvement of Undersecretary Maria Elena Boschi (former minister in the Renzi government) and Minister Graziano Delrio in the Banca Etruria affair.
As for the “proposal for a receivership, it came from Bank of Italy – added Padoan – We have understood and shared the need for a receivership. Government-wide discussions about troubled banks and not one in particular happened on an ongoing basis between the prime minister and myself and on other rare occasions there were discussions in wider government groups, but predominantly between the prime minister and the undersigned".
When asked about the supervisory action, the minister highlighted that in crisis management "there are cases that are plain to all, for example in the Veneto banks where the phenomena cannot be explained only by the seriousness of the crisis and the change in the rules". According to Padoan, the Supervisory Authority found itself operating in Italy within "an evolving system: it managed a banking system in difficulty due to the crisis and encountered specific and particular situations in which the deficiencies were not to be ascribed only to the crisis but also to crises of unsatisfactory management at the individual level, with important responsibilities in the individual institutions".
Previously Padoan had spoken of the reduction of NPLs in the Italian banking system.
