Bank of Italy (BoI) Senior
Deputy Governor Salvatore Rossi on Friday said the central bank
called for a ban on the sale of subordinate bonds to private
individuals, commenting in the wake of the government's November
decree to save four struggling banks in which a reported more
than 100,000 account holders who had purchased such bonds lost
money.
"The truth is that Bank of Italy Governor Ignazio Visco,
before all this came out, asked to prohibit the sale of
subordinated bonds to bank branches, so that only institutional
investors could buy them and not simple depositors," Rossi said
in an interview with Italian daily Corriere della Sera.
"We can't ban the sale of this or that product. We don't
have such ample powers. And I remind you that supervision of
investor solicitation is the job of another authority," Rossi
said.
"I'd like to avoid the usual Italy-against-Europe game, but
it's undeniable that there was a difference of views between
Italian authorities - the government first of all but also us -
and Brussels, or rather the Directorate General and the
competition (authority), and that is what pushed us to follow
the now-criticised road that brought about the saving of Banca
(Banca) Marche, CariFe, CariChieti and (Banca) Etruria," Rossi
said.
"The results of supervisory activity must be measured
across the entire system. In these past seven years, first of
financial crisis, then of sovereign debt and economic crisis,
the number and size of bank crises in Italy have been a fraction
of those in Spain, Germany, France and the Netherlands".
The subordinate bonds sold by the four banks - prompting
one to commit suicide after losing his life savings - are
regarded as high-risk financial products that should normally go
to savvy institutional investors and not to inexperienced small
savers looking for safe instruments to place their money in.
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