Consob, Savona: 'Ready to leave if I am not liked'

The chairman of Consob, Paolo Savona, says he is ready to leave office if he is not liked by the government. Savona, questioned on the sidelines of a speech at the Economy Festival of Trento on Bpm's reaction to the one-month extension of UniCredit's opus, observes: 'Consob is a collegial body that works with the offices, the legal, the issuers, the transparency and the market, and therefore the result is the sum of all these considerations'.

To reporters reporting criticism from members of the majority he replied: 'I am always ready to leave'. And then he adds: 'At a certain point, when I am no longer welcome I leave in all institutions...as long as I am welcome I stay when I am no longer welcome I leave'. Does he feel welcome? "I am of such an age that wisdom looms, it means that when one is wise one must leave under these conditions."

"Consob has applied the law, the consideration is that at a certain point in a situation of uncertainty the market is not able to decide and so we give time to clarify," the Consob chairman explained. 'Our task is to protect savers and transparency in order to make them make the right and rational choices,' he added. 'Time is needed. With uncertainty we need more time'.

The second day of the Trento Festival of Economics kicks off with a programme featuring Nobel Prize winners, managers and government representatives. The event, organised by the 24 Ore Group and Trentino Marketing on behalf of the Autonomous Province of Trento, with the collaboration of the Municipality and the University, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.

The leitmotif of the Festival is the role, choices and risks for Europe. The proceedings began with a meeting with Consob President Paolo Savona addressing the topic of the legitimacy of cryptocurrencies and risks for securities markets.