Hearings for the reform of cooperative banks have begun in the Senate Finance Committee. The goal is to arrive at the approval of a law text by the summer. The process resumes after a break that lasted more than a year. The bureau of the commission has drawn up a list of banks, associations and experts to be heard in the coming weeks in order to conclude the hearings by June. One after the other, the National Association of People's Banks, the ABI, the Bank of Italy, consumer associations and various experts will be heard. The scan of the dates for the hearings, however, has not yet been defined.
From various quarters, and from the Bank of Italy itself, there are requests for a reform of the system. Governor Mario Draghi, in his considerations two days ago at the Bank of Italy annual meeting, had returned to the subject, noting that "regulatory intervention" is necessary, because "statutory amendments cannot be decisive". At the beginning of the legislature, six bills were presented to adapt the model of cooperative banks. So far the commission has addressed the issue in only two sittings, on 3 February and 28 April last year. The long stop was caused "by the arrival of other priorities", explained the president of the Finance commission, Mario Baldassarri. But now the goal is to reach a synthesis between the various options in the field within a reasonable time.
