The save savers decree takes shape, the provision to support people who have lost the money invested in the subordinated bonds of the recently saved banks (Banca Etruria, Banca Marche, CariFe and CariChieti). According to the numbers elaborated by the new banks led by Roberto Nicastro and published yesterday by the Ministry of the Economy, the problem concerns 10.559 investors (1% of the total customers of the four institutes) who have spent in all 329,2 million euro to buy subordinated bonds.
It is now clear that not everyone will receive compensation and that it will be necessary to evaluate it on a case-by-case basis. The technical details will be finalized in the coming weeks, but the selection criterion may be simpler than expected. In fact, it is not certain that the two parameters indicated up to now as the most probable are taken into account, ie the ISEE (the indicator of the equivalent economic situation, the so-called "rich-meter") and the date of subscription of the bonds.
THE THREE CATEGORIES OF SAVERS
From the analysis published on the Treasury website it emerges that the savers involved can be divided into three categories:
1) The 1.010 people who had capital of less than 100 thousand euros invested for more than 50% in subordinated bonds. In all they lost 27 million euros total.
2) The 1.484 customers with assets of less than 100 thousand euros invested in subordinated bonds for 30-50%, or with assets greater than 100 thousand euros invested in subordinated bonds for more than 30%. Their losses amounted to 93,4 million.
3) The 8 thousand savers with more than 100 thousand euros and a share of assets invested in subordinated bonds of less than 30 percent. These people lost 208,4 million euros.
Savers belonging to the first and second categories should be included in the protection mechanism (and for the former the compensation could be complete), while those in the third category will probably remain excluded.
At the basis of this criterion there is an elementary reasoning: those who do not have much money should avoid buying high-risk products and if they do it means that they have been badly advised or deceived. On the other hand, anyone who invests only a part of his assets diversifies and is therefore assumed to have consciously assessed the risk.
PADOAN: EARLY TO TALK ABOUT THRESHOLDS
“It is still early to talk about thresholds – commented today the Minister of the Treasury, Pier Carlo Padoan, on the microphones of Radio Anch'io -. We are activating an arbitration mechanism. Above all, we will be concerned with safeguarding the weakest people both from the point of view of objective knowledge of the risk they were facing and from the financial point of view”.
RISK OF EU INFRINGEMENT PROCEDURE FOR STATE AID
Other problems, however, come from Brussels, which could open a new infringement procedure for state aid against our country. The reason is that the 100 million solidarity fund wanted by the government to compensate savers is fed and managed by the interbank deposit protection fund: it is a private fund, but it is considered by the EU as a public one because it is controlled by the State and because the banks contribute to it by law. The European green light would instead come if the 100 million were considered only as a pre-financing to deal with the emergency.
