Visco defends Italian banks: “The fears of the markets on non-performing loans are exaggerated” – The Republic

MILAN – The Governor of the Bank of Italy, Ignazio Visco, takes the field in defense of Italian banks, right in the agenda of Veneto Bank. The Venetian school is called to a difficult recapitalization 1 billion and groped landing on the stock market, but it is feared that it can go the way of the nearby Popolare di Vicenza that we have seen close the doors of the Milan Stock Exchange. “There are good reasons to argue that the concerns are exaggerated market on the quality of the assets of Italian banks”, said Governor at the “State of the Union” in progress in Fiesole, noting that “have a high level of guarantees on impaired loans (the so-called Non performing loans, npl ) and a more than full coverage. “

just a few days ago, a hearing in Parliament, the Supervisory Board of the ECB had come to stress the problem the suffering in the belly to Italian banks: the npl late last year came to 360 billion, gross of hedges. Visco acknowledged that delinquent loans are certainly considerable, “but are more than fully covered by real estate collateral and other guarantees: provisions for non-performing loans have increased steadily since the middle of 2012, and coverage ratios are in line with the average for the main “European banks. What’s even more important, though, it is that Visco has called “wrong” the widespread perception among insiders that the ECB itself is pushing for a rapid disposal of impaired loans. Clearly, sell those packages to be unrecoverable loans in a short time would lower their price, with damage to the budgets of the institutions. Fear that was felt on the stock market, where share prices have been downward in recent times. But Visco stressed that both the governor Mario Draghi that the head of the Banking Supervision have “recently and publicly made it clear” that there is no pressure to do so.

In the field of npl you can move the Fund Atlas recently formed, which for the moment has bothered to cover the 1.5 billion increase in Pop Vicenza snubbed by the market. The Fund mechanism, the opinion of Visco is in line with that of the ECB: “Although so far the available resources are limited (has collected 4.25 billion, ed ), the Fund may contribute Atlas to unlock the sufferings of the market “, playing the role of accelerator of the solution to the problem of npl . In this entry, the vehicle run by Alessandro Penati will devote at least 30% of its cartridges. However, he still remembered Visco, “is a solution that can take a significant amount of time. Being an operation involving private and market, must comply with current European legislation and consistent with the

Visco also reiterated a criticism that the bank of Italy has already done in the past to the new rules for the resolution of banks, the so-called bail-in which includes the involvement of shareholders, bondholders and depositors over 100 thousand euro before resorting to public money “one instrument designed to reduce the impact of a crisis must not create the conditions necessary in order to make possible another: if so, its design and its operation must be rethought”. In contrast, for banks – given the imbalances that generate their own crisis – you should contemplate “the possibility of resorting to a public safety net and, in a Union like ours, even a supranational in the presence of systemic risks and contagion. ” The sample then impressive: “If it fails a supermarket, close and another opens. If a bank fails, that is very unlikely to open another, it is more likely that the next start to have problems.”

they know something the savers of the four banks saved at the end of 2015. Those new (new Banca Marche, new Banca Etruria and Lazio, new Carichieti and new CariFerrara), represented by President Roberto Nicastro, have meanwhile met the Associations Consumers to discuss the form of reimbursement provided. “Several share points between the Good Bank and the Associations which are necessary comparisons both in view of the conversion into law of Decree both of the decrees. Among the elements of convergence, there is a strong hope that both the conversion, both decrees have a short time to ensure compliance with the deadlines set for the rest of the bondholders. in addition, it is considered important the possibility of a joint meeting with the Interbank Fund that will take care of repayments, “reads a note.

Topics:

Italian banks

Bank of Italy

bce

Venetian bank

sufferings

popular vicenza

Fund Atante

Starring:

Ignazio Visco