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Venetian banks at bail-in risk. Crucial meeting with Padoan

 

The worries and fears for the bailout of the two Venetian banks, Popolare di Vicenza and Veneto Banca, are increasing.

Yesterday afternoon a meeting with the heads of both institutions was held at the DG Comp offices in Brussels. The negotiation concerns several aspects, from the plan for the merger of the two institutions to the redundancies, from how to reach the 6.4 billion recapitalization required by the Bce to how to get rid of 9.6 billion gross debt.

But it is on the request from the European Commission to collect an additional 1 billion euro from the privates that the negotiation got stuck, since Brussels is adamant on its position.

The no comments at the end of the meeting of the CEOs of the two banks Cristiano Carrus for Veneto Banca and Fabrizio Viola for Popolare di Vicenza do not foretell anything good, and the fears for the actual possibility of a bail in are growing. Great worry has been expressed by the Italian banking system, as also stressed by Carlo Messina, CEO of Intesa San Paolo.

“Regarding the Venetian banks and the additional billion euro requested by the European Commission we need to accelerate and stand our ground in all the concerned offices, we need to hurry, we can’t wait months for a bureaucratic loop between subjects bouncing each other (…) Privates have already lost or they’re losing money. At this stage, the possibility of bailing these banks through a public intervention, as it has been discussed since December last year, must be guaranteed. I think we must accelerate and stand our ground also in the European context”.

Meanwhile, today a meeting between the Minister of Economy  Pier Paolo Padoan and the heads of the two banks is scheduled in Rome.