Banks, Orsini (Confindustria): «The decision-making center of gravity must remain Italian»

The ongoing Italian banking risk must draw attention to the fact that the important thing is that «today the solution capable of offering the greatest solidity, the greatest industrial capacity and the certainty that the decision-making center of gravity remains firmly Italian must prevail. Not necessarily the most fascinating solution. Not the one with the most sophisticated financial architecture. The safest one for the country." Thus the president of Confindustria, Emanuele Orsini, in an intervention in Corriere della Sera, in which he indicates that, faced with the "complexity" of the "defensive move" of Monte dei Paschi di Siena, rather than asking "who will win today's financial game", "we must ask ourselves what structure we are building for the Italian financial system of tomorrow and for financing business investments, taking into account the territorial overlaps of the credit to be provided".

For Orsini, «it is not financial nationalism. It's industrial policy. France defends its national champions when strategic sectors are at stake. I don't see why Italy should behave differently when it comes to banks, insurance and above all the savings of its families."

«Banco Bpm already has an extremely significant French presence in its capital. Generali, in turn, cannot simply be considered a large listed company: it is one of the country's financial pillars and holds an important part of Italians' savings. Bringing these worlds together means creating an enormous concentration of financial power. And when you build such complex architectures you have to look not only at who will have control over it tomorrow morning, but above all at who might have it in five or ten years. This is what worries me", writes Orsini, underlining that the fact that Consob was asked for an opinion demonstrates "how delicate the phase we are going through is".

Recognizing that "Europe must be an open market, but openness cannot mean naivety", Orsini underlines that we need the solutions that best preserve "the certainty that the decision-making center of gravity remains firmly Italian", since, "when hundreds of billions of Italians' savings are at stake, stability comes before financial experiments.

Financial operations pass. The protagonists change. The administrators change. But Italians' savings remain. And it is a heritage that we have the duty to pass on to future generations while maintaining decision-making capacity, skills and strategic control in Italy."