Bcc, here’s how and why Federcasse whines

24 February 20222 years ago babelfish

Cooperative credit banks (Bcc), what emerged from the hearing of Federcasse's leaders in Parliament. The article by Emanuela Rossi

Do not go back on the cooperative credit reform and instead aim to grow by overcoming the European banking regulatory framework and adapting it to the specific nature of the mutual banks. This is what the top management of Federcasse, represented by the president Augusto dell'Erba and by the general manager Sergio Gatti, asked, during the hearing in the parliamentary commission of inquiry on banks which said it was ready to make a moral suasion in this sense on the Italian Government and the EU Parliament. At the end of the hearing, the president, Carla Ruocco (M5S), announced that on April 11, the Minister of Economy and Finance, Daniele Franco, will be heard by the Commission, who will talk about "everything concerning public assets at the internal banking system. A formula that can be summarized in three letters: Mps.

BECAUSE IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO GO BACK ON THE REFORM OF THE COOPERATIVE CREDIT ACCORDING TO FEDERCASSE

Federcasse, as mentioned, returned to the 2016 cooperative credit reform, wanted by the then Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, which led to the birth of the two national banking groups, Iccrea and Ccb. From the reform, explained dell'Erba, there is no turning back towards a system based on institutional guarantee (Ips) although the cooperative banks in 2011 obtained the green light from the Bank of Italy for a similar system which, however, "for reasons of market, for subjective reasons, for reasons that are now consigned to history, it was not possible to make it operational ". "Today it is not possible to introduce a national IPS – said the president – because the constitution of the groups has gone ahead, very important investments have been made, the system has been stabilized in a certain logic and to imagine recesses, further divisions and further divisions. I see it as a weakening and not as a strengthening of the system ”.

Nor can we go back on another central element of the mutual banks, namely the cooperative nature. "The cooperative credit system has assets of about 22 billion and about 90% of it is made up of indivisible reserves, i.e. they do not belong to the bank and to the shareholders but are only entrusted to the extent that if someone thought of extinguishing it and transforming it that patrimony would go to the Ministry of Development "explained the Federcasse number one according to which" thinking that a BCC can be transformed into another type of bank is legally and abstractly possible but it will not be from us that an idea of this kind can come ".

The CBC model, he said again, "did not go into economic crisis (at the end of 2021 impaired loans were below 10 billion and gross non-performing loans amounted to 4.2 billion, -55.4% on a three-year basis, ed . ) therefore our proposals are not of the 'help us overcome a crisis' type; if anything, the aim is to "evolve the system to give even better and more because in the moment of stress, it was us who made the most measures of proximity to the territory and to the families" who "want to be respectful of all prudential mechanisms and we want to see those rules to which we believe we are entitled to be declined in our favor, not because of a sort of natural law, but because the European system is governed by the criterion of proportionality and we want it to be implemented for us too ". Precisely on the question of proportionality, at least partially intervention could be made through a specific legislative intervention as part of the ongoing revision of the European regulatory framework for the implementation of the final Basel 3 Agreements.

AND WHY THE AMENDMENT OF THE SECTOR RULES SHOULD BE ASKED IN BRUSSELS

Here, then, is that the road to improvement crosses the borders and tries to return to the EU legislation prior to 2013. "With the reform we are paying for the misalignment due to the fact that the European standard could not have a new legal institution in 2013" said dell'Erba . And again: "We think that the problem must be solved at its root and whatever the Italian intervention may be, it can only be embedded in the CRD directive on capital requirements" which is currently under review in Brussels.

For this Federcasse asks our Parliament and Palazzo Chigi to become "promoters of an urgent and very determined initiative, aimed at obtaining a timely adjustment of the European banking regulatory framework" so that the mutual banks do not suffer "unjustified competitive disadvantages". Specifically, according to the top management of Federcasse, "the most important objective to be achieved is the overcoming of the equation according to which the less significant banks (with assets of less than 30 billion) that are part of a significant banking group (as happens for single Bcc members of the two members of the two Cooperative Banking Groups) are in turn classified as significant, with all the heavy consequences of a regulatory and supervisory nature. This would allow the mutual banks – continued dell'Erba – to have the forms of proportionality introduced, also at the instigation of Federcasse, in May 2019 recognized – from a regulatory standpoint – as well as to be applied – from a supervisory point of view – practices and conduct in any case. rigorous, but less onerous and more adequate with respect to risk profiles and regulations

of constitutional derivation provided for by the Italian law on mutuality ".

THE PROMISE OF THE BANKS COMMISSION

At the end of the hearing, the Bicameral Commission of Inquiry into Banks made it known that it accepted, at least for its part, Federcasse's request, communicating that it intends to start "a moral suasion activity on the Italian Government and the European Parliament so that European banking regulations currently being defined take into account "the status of the mutual banks which render" a service to shareholders and communities of reference ".

In a note, the chairman Carla Ruocco (M5S) recalled what was stated by the Federcasse top management, namely that the cooperative credit banks "are required to comply with particularly stringent and onerous requirements established by the prudential discipline and by the legislation concerning the resolution of banks in the event of a crisis. . The inconsistency between being a 'small and non-complex entity' and having to respect the rules laid down for large European banks – added the pentastellata parliamentarian – does not allow the principles of proportionality of the supervisory rules and practices to be applied in practice. , as the particular juridical characteristics, the dimensional connotations and the operational profiles that are anything but complex would require ”of the mutual banks.

THE ANALYSIS OF THE SUN 24 HOURS ON THE HEARING BY FEDERCASSE AND BCC

“There is a train passing through Europe for the modification of banking rules and, for once, Italy must try not to lose it. In the image of the Federcasse leaders, heard yesterday in the Bicameral Commission on Banks, the train is the revision of the European Crd VI directive on prudential legislation and the European Crr regulation, already in an advanced stage of elaboration at the European Council in view of the negotiation phase among the co-legislators (the so-called Trilogue) – underlined Il Sole 24 Ore – The cooperative credit banks, recalled the president of the Augusto Dell'Erba association, suffer "from an onerous equation that alters competition" are small banks which, however, being part of a cooperative group considered significant (i.e. with assets over 30 billion) are in turn classified as significant and are therefore attracted to the sphere of ECB supervision and required to comply with prudential requirements including capital ratios and eligibility requirements for board members which are the same as those applied to large European banking groups. The problem arises from the asymmetry between the European banking rules, dated 2013, and the Italian reform of the BCCs of 2016 which introduced the cooperative banking group, unknown three years earlier. This is why the only way, says the Federcasse summit, is to go back upstream and correct the European standard ”.

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/bcc-federcasse-audizione/ on Wed, 23 Feb 2022 08:07:47 +0000.