Parliament's first Yes to decree for the rescue of Banca Popolare di Bari, without however the discussed intervention on the CCBs. The Chamber of Deputies approved the text with 412 votes in favour, no votes against and 28 abstentions, including the deputies of the Brothers of Italy. Surprisingly, the deputies of Lega and Forza Italia also voted in favour. The provision now passes to the Senate and must be converted into law by February 14th.
The undersecretaries for the economy, Pier Paolo Baretta and Alessio Villarosa, presented the decree to the deputies, reaffirming the government's intention to focus on relaunching the bank and not on its bankruptcy. To avoid any type of obstacle in the parliamentary process, a negative opinion was expressed to the opposition amendments which asked to introduce within the decree rules aimed at protecting savers.
"The intervention for savers - said Villarosa - can only possibly be later to the proposal that the operators put in place by this government will make to the shareholders who will have to decide whether to continue with the operation put in place or possibly even vote against the shareholders' meeting”. “In that case – he concluded – “there will be maximum protection for savers as in the past”.
"Now it is inappropriate to include the topic of saving savers who risk giving the wrong signal" that is "that the bank is going bankrupt so we are concerned with covering you", remarked the Undersecretary for the Economy Pier Paolo Baretta.
Similar motivations underpin the government's choice of exclude from the text the so-called counter-reform of the CCBs. Also in this case the majority chose to express a negative opinion on the amendments presented by the oppositions.
"We have decided to keep the decree as it is to focus on Popolare di Bari and the public investment bank", explained Villarosa, adding however that "there is a commitment” from the government to present a “next measure, which will certainly arrive shortly, because we really intend to intervene on the banking system and, therefore, there will be room for this amendment in that provision".
The amendments provided for the CCBs institutional protection systems which, on the model of Trento and Bolzano, would have emancipated them from the cages of the two national holding companies. The proposal would de facto dismantled one of the cornerstones of the CCB reform approved by the Renzi government. It is therefore difficult to think that Italia Viva would have given a favorable opinion to the decree in the Senate.
The Executive has decided to secure the text, guaranteeing the votes of a large majority and postponing any type of measure - more or less invasive - on the Cooperative Credit Banks to the near future. In this case too, however, the opinions and votes of the party led by Matteo Renzi will be fundamental, but attention must also be paid to the opinion of the European Central Bank which, after having shared the inspiration for the reform with the Bank of Italy, will hardly allow the constraints established in 2016 to be relaxed too much. However, it is not excluded that, without affecting the spirit of the reform, some form of softening in applying the obligations of the legislation, meeting the requests of many CCBs.
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