A light at the end of the tunnel comes on for Banca Popolare di Vicenza and Veneto Banca. After the very quick rescue of Banco Popular by Santander in Spain, the pressure of the Minister of Economy, Pier Carlo Padoan, has become more insistent and seems to have convinced Unicredit and Intesa Sanpaolo to reopen their wallets to save the Veneto banks. It is a matter of raising 1,2 billion euros of private capital to allow – according to what the European Commission requests – the go-ahead for a more substantial intervention by the Treasury (5 billion) and put together the 6,2 billion needed to recapitalize and the two Venetian banks in safety.
Unicredit and Intesa have said they are willing to do their part, provided that the other banks in the deposit guarantee fund do the same, pro rata. For the big banks it is no small effort, considering that already in 2016 and 2015 they had disbursed a lot of capital both to go to the rescue of the four Good banks (Banca dell'Etruria, Banca Marche, Carife and Carichieti) and to give resources to the Atlante Fund, which sold out for the Venetian banks without however being able to secure them.
Now we are at the point and to induce Unicredit and Intesa to reopen the wallet there is above all the mathematics and that is the calculation that the recapitalization of the Deposit Guarantee Fund to help the depositors of the Veneto banks under 100 thousand euros in the event of default would cost much more than the costly participation in the new capital increase of Popolare di Vicenza and Veneto Banca.
The next few hours will be decisive for the breakthrough and rescue of the Veneto banks in a frenetic race against time, but the signals coming from the top management of Unicredit and Intesa are encouraging. In the meantime, Banca Mediolanum also made itself available in the early afternoon: "If everyone takes part, we will take part too", assured today the CEO, Massimo Doris, on the sidelines of the 47th conference of Confindustria Young Entrepreneurs, in Rapallo. However, the ok is conditioned by the timing: there must be "speed of action", pointed out Doris, convinced that the cost of rescuing BPVI and Veneto Banca "is rising so much due to the slowness in resolving the problems are created".
(Last update at 16.12.)
