(see related) Fitch said in a
report on Wednesday that Italy's new Atlante fund for the
banking sector will weaken the nation's major lenders like
UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo.
"It will weaken the financial profile of the large Italian
banks and their respective ratings could end up under further
pressure if they are called on to provide further extraordinary
support to the banking sector," it said
The agency also said the creation of the Atlante "could
encounter some risks" as the involvement of public lender Cassa
Depositi e Prestiti could cause the European Commission to have
doubts about whether it respects EU rules against State aid.
The fund aims to avert the risk of bail-ins of Italian
lenders by helping with situations regarding capital and
non-performing loans.
The fund will be mostly financed by healthy Italian
banks.
Intesa Sanpaolo bank will not take more than a 20% stake
in the new Atlante fund to help weaker Italian banks, if its
participation is approved, CEO Carlo Messina said Wednesday.
The new Atlante fund for Italy's bank sector aims to
obtain three billion euros from Italy's healthy banks, with
giants Intesa SanPaolo and Unicredit chipping in about one
billion each, various qualified sources said on Wednesday.
UBI is set to contribute 250 million, the merging
BPM-Banco Popolare 200 million and BPER 150, with the
medium-sized lenders contributing about 75 million each, the
sources said.
They said the fund was aiming to offer a yield of around
6% to investors, an attractive level at a time of zero interest
rates.
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