"Right now the important thing is to restore liquidity conditions for the productive fabric, giving support to businesses and families". These are the words released in an interview with La Stampa by the director general of Unicredit, Roberto Nicastro, in reference to the use of the money from the ECB maxi-auction held yesterday. Nicastro also expressed his doubts about the real potential of the loan in reducing the cost of credit in Italy.
Andrea Beltratti, chairman of the management board of Intesa Sanpaolo, shares the same opinion. "The operation - he explains - was conceived, presented and implemented mainly to reduce the risk of credit rationing to the economy and to favor the exit from the recessionary phase, but only with a lasting easing of the spreads will it be possible to structurally reduce the cost of the credit".
Unicredit and Intesa Sanpaolo participated in the auction for 7,5 and 12 billion euros respectively. However, it was all the major Italian banks that took advantage of the low-cost European opportunity, for a total of 116 billion euro and a 23,7% share of the funds placed.
Among the major credit institutions, the name of Monte dei Paschi di Siena also stands out, which participated for 10 billion euros.
In Italy the operation, carried out through the issue of bonds guaranteed by the State for 40,4 billion, assumes an even more significant significance: the Treasury, in fact, will have to place more than 200 billion of government bonds of public debt in the first four months of 2012 and will only be able to make the most of the greater resources in the hands of Italian banks.
The European Central Bank has provided a total of three-year liquidity, at a rate of 1%, to 523 banks in the old continent, for a total placement of 489 billion euro.
However, the European markets did not immediately respond enthusiastically, with Piazza Affari losing almost 1% at the end of the day.
Quite a few analysts have pointed out that such a strong demand for liquidity by the banks does not in itself represent a positive fact, but rather testifies to the serious difficulties facing the entire banking sector.
