Italian banks can face the ECB's stress tests without fear in view of the single supervision: they are in better conditions than many competitors in the eurozone. This is the message addressed by the governor of the Bank of Italy, Ignazio Visco, to the nine bankers of medium-large institutions received yesterday at Palazzo Koch. The appointment took place in view of the meeting in Frankfurt with the ECB president Mario Draghi scheduled for November 25th.
The topics of the summit followed the one with the big five banks held last week: the risks to financial stability and the process of approaching Single Supervision which will concern fifteen Italian banks: the five big ones and the nine institutes convened today (Carige, Bpm, Bper, Pop.Vicenza, Credem, Popolare Sondrio, Iccrea Holding, Veneto Banca and Creval).
From Visco a particular recommendation on liquidity. Italian banks must increase collateral stocks in view of the expiry of the ECB's LTROs. To do this, the agreements on loans to SMEs will have to be adapted in order to make them acceptable in the ECB as collateral for liquidity.
From the meeting with Governor Visco and the Deputy General Managers Fabio Panetta and Valeria Sannucci, the bankers came away with the awareness that their institutions are ready to take the ECB exams also due to the early action of the Via Nazionale Supervisory Authority which in recent months has pushed for a strengthening of weaknesses. This is the case of coverage rates on non-performing loans, raised in recent months by a large part of the system
With regard to the definition of the criteria for the assessment of the ECB, it emerged from the meeting that they will be defined in detail after the cycle of meetings with the 128 European banks that will pass under the supervision of Frankfurt. The European bankers (convened for groups of countries on three different days, the first already took place last Wednesday) will give Draghi and the other members of the steering committee, the guiding committee, a series of assessments which will be taken into account.
ùA question on which the attention of the nine Italian bankers, accompanied by the director general of ABI Giovanni Sabatini, was particularly focused was that of the possible assessment of the governance profiles of the banks in the comprehensive assessment of the ECB which also provides for a asset quality analysis (Aqr). A bank "must be properly governed", is the answer given by the top management of via Nazionale who did not have to give examples: they were very clear to everyone.
