Weber, Alexander, (2017), “Monte Paschi Bailout Plan Has Some ECB Supervisors Grumbling”, Bloomberg, 27 March
When the European Central Bank declared Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA solvent last December, the first step toward a state-funded rescue, some members of the 19-nation Supervisory Board weren’t fully on board.
Confronted with what they saw as a political agreement to bail out the world’s oldest lender, dissenters went along with the consensus despite their concerns about the bank’s health, according to people familiar with the decision, who declined to be identified because the deliberations were private.
The ECB has kept a low profile in the three months since, ceding the spotlight to the European Commission in Brussels, which will rule on the Italian government’s eventual plan. But nothing has alleviated the misgivings of some Supervisory Board members about using taxpayers’ money to prop up Monte Paschi for a third time, the people said.
Relevant Posts
- Lehmann, Alexander, (2016), “ECB bank supervision cannot tackle debt restructuring single-handedly”, Bruegel, 13 October
- Amihud, Yakov, Favero, Carlo, (2016), “How to fix Italian banks”, Voxeu, 19 July