Reimbursements hit 15 mn for failed bank bondholders

(ANSA) - Rome, November 21 - More than 15 million euros have been reimbursed to bondholders of failed Italian banks for around 80% of their holdings, Interbank Fund (FITD) deputy director general Salvatore Paterna told ANSA on Monday.
    He said 6,200 cases were currently being processed with about 1,000 more awaiting processing.
    "Up to now, 96.9% of the reimbursements are for balances of less than 50,000 euros each, with 85% of those under 20,000 euros," he said, adding that 63.3% of reimbursements have been for balances of less than 10,000 euros.
    Paterna said that the initial estimate of 6,500 reimbursement claims has been revised upwards to "more than double, perhaps about 12,000", if all of the investors entitled make a claim.
    He said the reimbursements, which began in September, have been proceeding at a weekly pace, but could now become bi-weekly or even more frequent, in order to satisfy the 60-day reimbursement deadline on a large wave of claims submitted at the end of September.
    The overall total of reimbursements is expected to significantly surpass 20 million euros within the next seven days, he said.
    For investors with larger balances whose reimbursement deadline is January 3, the fund is awaiting the result of an arbitration which may not arrive within that deadline.
    "If the (arbitration results) should be delayed and the deadline for the 80% reimbursement remains January 3, I can imagine that in the final days of December those (investors) will spill over into the lump sum proceedings," he said.