Renzi under fire over banks-Benedetti

(ANSA) - Rome, January 10 - Democratic Party (PD) leader Matteo Renzi came under fire on Wednesday over reports that he spoke to businessman Carlo De Benedetti about plans to reform Italy's popolari cooperative banks when he was premier before the legislation was passed by his government.
    The reports referred to telephone conversation in January 2015 in which De Benedetti told his broker that he had spoken to Renzi about the reform decree and the then-premier had said that it would be passed.
    Prosecutors have requested that an insider trading probe be shelved after Renzi and De Benedetti both said that they had not gone into the details of the reform. Renzi said Wednesday that the fact the reform was in the pipeline was no secret.
    "There was a news agency report that said we would have undertaken that reform," Renzi told Radio Capital.