During the week, the opponents of Renzi reform on popular banks they will play all their cards to hinder and delay its parliamentary progress by raising, in the Montecitorio hall, the preliminary ruling of unconstitutionality of the decree and arguing that the conditions of "necessity and urgency" do not exist. But against these specious objections the Governor of the Bank of Italy, Ignazio Visco, dropped an ace in his speech on Saturday at the Assiom-Forex congress that cuts off the bull's head.
As already in 92 for the transformation by decree of Iri, Eni, Enel and Ina, the urgency to modernize and secure the major Popolari after more than twenty years of waiting for the reform and to prevent uncertainty from fueling criminal phenomena of inside trading and stock market manipulation would be enough to motivate the Renzi government to resort to the decree, but the Governor went further and put an incontrovertible argument on the table.
According to Visco, it is the fact that as early as November 8 of the 10 Popolari under reform (that is, except Etruria and Bari) have passed under the European Supervision of the ECB that makes their transformation into joint stock companies "pressing", as foreseen by the reform of the Government. Not only because the ECB does not like the per capita vote and the current armoring of the large cooperatives - whose president Mario Draghi has always fought for their transformation into a joint stock company - but because - here is the crucial point raised by the Governor - new and "adequate of corporate governance” are “essential” to “increase capital solidity and competitive capacity” of the large cooperative banks themselves.
The transformation of the major Popolari into joint stock companies - Visco insisted - "increases the ability to resort to the capital market" which is decisive for adjusting the capital ratios. Let us not forget, moreover, that, according to the data at the end of 2013, none of the large Italian cooperative banks, except UBI, has passed the double test of the ECB, consisting of stress tests and asset quality reviews and that seven of the eight cooperative banks supervised by Eurotower were postponed to September and, finally, that eight of the ten under reform had a total capital ratio below the average of the Popolari as a whole.
During 2014, the minimum requirement for the total capital ratio rose from 8 to 10,5% and "a large part of the large Popolari – as reported yesterday by "Il Sole 24 Ore" – has come into compliance", with the exception of Popolare di Vicenza, Veneto Banca and Banca dell'Etruria e del Lazio. But the need to keep capital ratios under control, especially in difficult times, remains more acute than ever and the European Central Bank will certainly not discount this. This is why the transformation of the major Popolari into joint stock companies to facilitate their recourse to the market is not an option but a real urgency, as the Bank of Italy, the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund have been underlining for years and not by chance finally the Renzi government gives an answer with the reform, which it would be criminal to obstruct.
