Cardia, a true statesman
The memory of Federico Cornelli, Consob Commissioner
Lamberto Cardia was first Commissioner and then President of Consob. As soon as he was appointed President, he immediately had to deal with the Parmalat crisis and then the Lehman crisis. Two very serious crises of confidence for the markets. The first, similar to the US Enron crisis, arose from a failure of endosocietal controls. The second was a crisis imported from the US that affected all markets and initiated a period of great tension in the stock market. Cardia then managed the Fiat-Ifil-Exor cases, major operations on some of the major Italian banks such as Antonveneta and Bnl, and the takeover of Rcs.
During those operations he always instructed us to 'do our duty with serenity', without ever influencing the supervisory activities of the offices. He understood that Consob needed to strengthen its capacity for financial and market analysis, as well as its legal and accounting expertise, which it already possessed. He gave me the personal impulse to move supervision from ex post to ex ante, to intercept possible balance sheet fraud, to better protect Italia's savings. He had a straight back and always kept his word.
Three weeks ago I had visited him in the clinic and found him as lucid and sharp as ever, attentive to the international picture. He was a true statesman, with a deep institutional sense and, for those who had the good fortune to work with him, a master of intellect and commitment, esteemed and loved by the staff of Consob.
