The rescue of the Veneto banks remains an acrobatic operation. It will not be easy for the Minister of the Economy, Pier Carlo Padoan, to convince the banks in the next few hours to open their portfolios and invest the 1,2 billion euros necessary to obtain the definitive go-ahead from the European Commission for the recapitalization of Popolare di Vicenza and Veneto Banca with the decisive support of the Treasury. This is why in the last few hours the specter of the bail-in has returned to haunt the North-East.
The signs of openness from Unicredit and Intesa Sanpaolo, which conditioned their yes to the bailout on the willingness of the other banks to do their part, remain an uphill battle. Yesterday Massimo Doris, CEO of Banca Mediolanum, stood on the same optimistic line as the two major banks, but in the broad front of the former Popolari (Ubi in the lead) the doubts and opposition to the collection to recapitalize Popolare di Vicenza and Veneto Banca they grow up.
Ubi is grappling with a 400 million capital increase to recapitalize the 3 newly acquired Good Banks (Etruria, Marche and Carichieti) and it is not easy to find other resources to come to the aid of the Veneto banks. The same goes for Monte dei Paschi.
But, even in the absence of official statements, doubts also surface in Banco Bpm which, under the guidance of CEO Giuseppe Castagna, is grappling with the start-up phase of the merger between Banco Popolare and Bpm from which the third Italian bank to which the ECB Supervision has never given discounts and which it keeps under constant observation even if fortunately it has not asked for other capital increases.
Statute in hand, even the Cassa depositi e prestiti sees its participation in the rescue of the Veneto banks as problematic.
Minister Padoan is likely to launch a final attack on private banks over the weekend to induce them to open their wallets and thus save the Veneto banks, but the outcome is not obvious. And the top management of Popolare di Vicenza and Veneto Banca, who will return to meet their boards of directors on Tuesday, do not fail to raise alarms to signal that time is running out and that, in the absence of resolving interventions, default is around the corner .
