Banks: Orsini says that, in the event of a crisis, the preferred solution is one where the centre of decision-making lies in Italia

The ongoing Italian banking crisis must draw attention to the fact that what matters is that ‘today, the solution that prevails must be the one capable of offering the greatest stability, the greatest industrial capacity and the certainty that the centre of decision-making remains firmly Italian. Not necessarily the most appealing solution. Nor the one with the most sophisticated financial architecture. The one that is safest for the country’. So says the president of Confindustria, Emanuele Orsini, in an article in the Corriere della Sera, in which he points out that, faced with the ‘complexity’ of Monte dei Paschi di Siena’s ‘defensive move’, rather than asking ‘who will win today’s financial battle’, ‘we must ask ourselves what framework we are building for tomorrow’s Italian financial system and for the financing of business investment, taking into account the geographical overlaps in the credit to be disbursed’.

According to Orsini, “This is not financial nationalism. It is industrial policy. France defends its national champions when strategic sectors are at stake. I don’t see why Italia should act any differently when it comes to banks, insurance companies and, above all, the savings of its households.”

‘Banco BPM already has a very significant French presence in its share capital. Generali, for its part, cannot simply be regarded as a large listed company: it is one of the country’s financial pillars and holds a significant portion of Italians’ savings. Bringing these two worlds together would create an enormous concentration of financial power. And when constructing such complex structures, we must look not only at who will be in control tomorrow morning, but above all at who might be in control in five or ten years’ time. ‘This is what worries me,’ Orsini writes, emphasising that the fact that Consob has been asked for its opinion demonstrates ‘just how delicate the phase we are going through is’.

Whilst acknowledging that ‘Europe must be an open market, but openness cannot mean naivety’, Orsini stresses precisely that we need solutions which best safeguard ‘the certainty that the centre of decision-making remains firmly Italian’, since, ‘when hundreds of billions of Italians’ savings are at stake, stability takes precedence over financial experiments’.

‘Financial transactions come and go. The key players change. The directors change. But Italians’ savings remain. And this is a legacy that we have a duty to pass on to future generations, whilst ensuring that decision-making power, expertise and strategic control remain in Italia.’