Failed banks, Vegas is autoassolve: “The bond risks were clear in the statements. Our errors? We are human” – The Daily

“Human activity is never free from hazards . The powers public can not eliminate all forms of risk, but they have to make reasonable . This is the task of asset protection authorities. Women and men who lead and work there can, like all human beings, commit Errors . ” Who knows how it will sound, the ears of defrauded investors from Banca Etruria , Banca Marche , Carichieti and Carife , confession fallibility marked by the chairman of Consob Giuseppe Vegas while annual report to the financial market. Followed, however, by the admission that the statements that should inform customers of those risks are “ too long and complex to be able to be read and fully understood” and now serve above all “who prepares them to prevent legal risks . ” And that, on the watch face, you need to “give the European authorities the power to define models and procedures binding for those home and control then the work, including through use actions substitute . “

Speaking to the parterre met as Piazza tradition Affairs, after the parenthesis of 2015 to ‘ Expo , the former senator from Force Italy that guides the authority called upon to protect investors and oversee the conduct of operators argued that the risks of subordinated bonds reset by the decree of November 22, 2015 were known to all. “The statements and informational supplements accompanying emissions were adopted in the compliance with the transparency rules of the detailed rules on the prospectus,” he told the audience in which even sat Roberto Nicastro , President of the ‘new’ four banks. But at the end of his speech, as a Acrobat on the wire, he acknowledged that to err it is human and it also happens to supervisors. Which, however, has claimed, “I am here to give trusted to Italian retail investors.” It must “operate in accordance with all the other” institutions “sincere cooperation” to “ determine the right in the same manner.”

The quote is from policy Aristotle , and continues: “what is right equally keeps an eye on the benefit of the State and the entire town of public . ” Translated: Government, authority and – supposedly – the judiciary, in assessing whether someone were trimmed financial instruments incompatible with its risk profile, should note also the bigger picture. Music to the ears of those present: among others the number one ABI Antonio Patuelli , the ACRI Giuseppe Guzzetti , the CEO of Banco Popular Pier Francesco Saviotti , to Mediobanca Alberto Nagel , chairman of Intesa Sanpaolo Gian Maria Gros Pietro , to Unicredit Giuseppe Vita , the managing director of Ubi Victor Massiah and the CEO of Unipol Carlo Cimbri . Unless, perhaps, the deputy prosecutor of the financial crimes department of the Milan prosecutor’s office, Francesco Greek , who was also present at Palazzo Mezzanotte.

The farewell to probability scenarios and the excess of information in prospectuses – Hard to say if the mea culpa on the “errors” also apply to the decision to send in the attic, between 2009 and 2011 , the probabilistic scenarios that showed briefly to savers, with a percentage, how many possibilities there were to see go up in smoke its capital. You would say no, because the explicit part dell’excusatio affected only the excess of information contained in the statement: “Too much information almost always tantamount to a lack of information ,” acknowledged the Consob president. “The prospectus did not prove an appropriate instrument to provide an effective response to the need to knowledge “. In particular, “the prospectus has become a useful tool to who drew them up to prevent possible legal risks , but it remains a document is too long and complex in order to be read and fully understood by saver “. We need to “make a selection,” which the authority now, fled to oxen, he proposes to make putting in Consultation “a Recommendation on guidelines to define and standardize the content of the warnings for the investor” and “another recommendation containing guiding principles on key information to be provided to retail clients in the distribution of

regulatory Models “not in question” – no second thoughts, to Vegas, you still need the “ supervisory models on the provision of investment services”: “the events related to the liquidation of four banks not they question basic validity “. In the focus should be placed only “management models” of some banks “in which lacked an adequate system of checks and balances between subjects deciding , management organs and organs of control “- all aspects subject to the supervision of the Bank of Italy . He ‘was this “weak corporate governance mechanism”, points the finger Vegas, which “has caused damage to businesses and savers whose negative effects were in some cases sanctioned and others are being verification by the supervisory authorities and the judiciary “. Not inaction Consob, which until last December – when they were appointed the two missing members of the college Commissioners – Vegas reigned undisturbed thanks to his double vote in case of equality.

total Amnesia on responsibilities of authority in having him lose hundreds of millions of cost savings to the bondholders of the four banks. Think of when, in December 2013, the Commission has published on its website the additional to the prospectus for Banca Etruria bonds issued this spring, and has granted only to savers two days on horseback the holidays to exercise their right of revocation. This despite the EU legislation clearly states that the two days are the minimum time to be granted to customers, time that can be extended at the discretion of.

The only indication that we need a change of pace was the wish to be “made a full centralization” at European level “of financial intermediation vigilance”, endowing the European authorities “the power to define models and procedures binding for those home and control then the work, including through use of staff replacements. “

Sanctions down 20.6000000 to 12.1000000 – in support of the thesis that vigilance was efficient and effective, Vegas recalled that since 2007, the year of introduction of the EU Directive on financial markets ( MiFID ), “Consob has made about a thousand supervisory interventions on services investment “with a cover of” about 90% of the savings invested in financial instruments related to retail customers, while the audits have covered around 55% of the market. ” Leafing through the 244 pages of the report, however, it turns out that in 2015 the authority imposed Sanctions 12,100,000 against 20.6 million in fines in 2014. According to ‘authorities can not make a comparison because in 2014 had come to fruition four cases of particular entity – that is, those related to Premafin , Fondiaria-Sai , Monte dei Paschi and Proto – which alone had resulted in sanctions for a total of 16 million euro. In 2015, the highest sanction is the one that refers to Tercas , which amounts to EUR 976mila. In the meantime, however, some pronouncements of the Committee have been canceled because the authorities took him too long to make the findings: the case of the fine of 1.4 million all’immobiliarista Danilo Coppola , imposed after more than two-year investigation. This after last year the Council of State ruled that the sanction stage in the process that takes place in front of the Consob has many critical .

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