Italy's MPS scandal widens among anger and reassurances
时间：2013-01-28 02:34:56
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MILAN, Italy, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- Italy's caretaker prime minister Mario Monti on Friday pledged to clear up a derivatives1 scandal at the country's third-largest bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) which has been dragged into the heart of an electoral campaign for its ties with the center-left Democratic Party (PD).
"It is a matter of achieving the maximum clarity .. also from the
penal2 standpoint if necessary," Monti told Rai state radio as the lender, in an extraordinary meeting faced with
shareholders3' anger, agreed plans for a capital increase to
underpin4 a request of 3.9 billion euros (5.2 billion U.S. dollars) of state bailout.
Local reports broke the news this week that up to around 750 million euros had been lost by MPS in "
secrete5" deals with Japanese bank Nomura and German bank Deutsche Bank that MPS said it only recently discovered after its new management team launched an
accounting6 overhaul7.
The "hole" added up to a series of setbacks for the oldest bank in the world that was already on track to end 2012 in the red after it stocked up 1.6-billion-euro losses related to its exposure to 24 billion euros of Italian sovereign debt, and facing an
investigation8 for the as
costly9 as shady acquisition of smaller rival Antonveneta in 2007.
The episode, which forced former chairman Giuseppe Mussari to step down as head of the Italian
Banking10 Association (ABI), piled pressure on PD which has historically been closely linked to MPS, and spurred strong criticism of the Monti government for using
taxpayers11' money to save the lender.
Monti, who is running in the Feb. 24-25 national election at the helm of a centrist
coalition12 against PD leader
Pier13 Luigi Bersani, who now leads opinion polls said that the center-left "had a role" in the scandal due to its long-standing "influence" on MPS.
The historical phenomenon of "
mingling14 banking and politics has to be further rooted out," he said.
Though he
vowed15 to address parliament on the matter, the outgoing prime minister denied his cabinet shared responsibility and
reassured16 Italians that the scandal did not affect the country's "solid banking system" as a whole.
The MPS's shares, which had dropped 20 percent this week,
rebounded17 on Friday, rising over 11 percent. Yet, the bank was overwhelmed by shareholders' anger over its mounting losses, while some experts raised the
prospect18 of nationalization.
During the Friday meeting, Beppe Grillo, a
comedian19 turned politician who has
mustered20 thousands of Italians
disillusioned21 with
mainstream22 parties, accused MPS of hiding "a 14-billion-euro shortfall" in its accounts, prompting Chairman Alessandro Profumo to shoot back there was "no hole" though he could not give up-to-date figures as an internal probe was
pending23.
Other shareholders expressed sorrow for the
turmoil24 surrounding "a bank whose origins date back to the
Renaissance25."According to a statement from the bank's CEO Fabrizio Viola, as far as there are losses, these are not expected to impact the balance sheet, a professor of financial markets and intermediaries at Bocconi University of Milan, Stefano Gatti, told Xinhua.
Gatti said should the derivatives loss amount indeed to around 750 million euros as supposed so far, it can be easily absorbed by the bank's current assets.
"However, there is a big question mark here, as the losses could also be much bigger," he
pointed26 out.
The head of Italy's central bank Ignazio Visco, under pressure for its
supervision27 of the case, also rejected criticism while echoing the MPS management that there was no threat to the stability of the lender.
"It is wrong to
insinuate28 that there was a lack of supervision by the Bank of Italy," he told CNBC television at the sidelines of the World Economic
Forum29 in Davos.
However, doubts were raised about the central bank's declaration that it was
unaware30 of the derivatives contracts by largest circulation newspaper Corriere della Sera, which quoted documents showing that
inspectors31 had expressed concerns about the monitoring of those deals in 2010.
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