Boschi at Banca Etruria meet (2)

(ANSA) - Rome, December 15 - Cabinet Secretary Maria Elena Boschi was present at a meeting between the heads of Banca Etruria and Veneto Banca in her family home at Easter 2014 but "she didn't proffer a word and left after a quarter of an hour," former Veneto Banca Ceo Vincenzo Consoli told the parliamentary commission of inquiry into Italy's banking crisis Friday. The meeting took place, he said, "because we found out that Etruria had got a letter from the Bank of Italy similar to ours" in which the central bank urged them to find a possible merger partner of elevated standing, which was later identified as Banca Popolare di Vicenza.
    Boschi was minister for relations with parliament at the time of the meeting, while her father Pier Luigi was vice president of the Arezzo-based bank for a few months at that time.
    Earlier Friday Premier Paolo Gentiloni said after an EU summit that Boschi had "cleared up" that she did not exert pressure on bourse regulator CONSOB chief Giuseppe Vegas to try to stop a merger between her father's Banca Etruria and the Banca Popolare di Vicenza in 2014.
    "I don't take the liberty of passing judgement on the parliamentary commission of inquiry into the banking crisis, but I hope the next few weeks are not dominated by rows over banks," he said.
    Gentiloni added that Boschi, who was minister for relations with parliament at the time of her meeting with Vegas, would be a candidate for his Democratic Party in a general election in March.
    "I hope she wins," he said.