The head of Italy’s bank-bailout fund said on Tuesday the country lacked a clear strategy for shifting 356 billion euros ($381 billion) in problem loans… “There is no clear vision of the problem and no strategy,” Penati said at a financial conference in Milan, suggesting that he was virtually working alone on rescues that had revealed “horror stories” within some banks.
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Penati said his job had taken him inside some dark corners of Italian banking. “I had never looked at banks from the inside … I was stunned they are run in this way,” he said.
He said Atlante’s investors had shown “zero long-sightedness” for declining to invest more in the fund, which has used 80 percent of its money to rescue two banks in northeast Italy — Veneto Banca and Banca Popolare di Vicenza. Both these lenders now need more capital.
Intesa has devalued its stake in Atlante by 33 percent and a source has said rival UniCredit could write it down by as much as 70 percent.