Italian banks can fall prey to foreign ones, the numbers say

Italian banks, due to their size, could be attacked by foreign banks. In particular, from the three largest European institutions: Credit Agricole, Bnp Paribas and Banco Santander. This is the conclusion reached by a confidential report, dated 28 September 2022, which circulates in banking environments and which Adnkronos was able to consult. The thesis rests on the observation that “the presence of supranational banking champions would promote real competitiveness on the world market and, above all, would guarantee substantial protection of the European system from possible attacks by competitors and international funds”. The numbers say that the conditions exist for Italian banks to become prey. The report cites the ranking, by Tier 1 capital amounts, published by the American financial site Thebankerdatabase. There are no Italian banks among the top 20 in the ranking: the first of the European banks, in ninth place, is HSBC, which is outside the Eurosystem; in fourteenth and fifteenth place are the first two institutions of the European Union, Credit Agricole and BNP Paribas, fully operational and protagonists within our national panorama; the Spanish Banco Santander closes the top 20. The rest is the prerogative of China (which occupies the first 4 places at unbridgeable distances) and the United States, with the exception of the Japanese Mitsubishi, twelfth. To find an Italian bank, it is necessary to go down to thirty-third place, with Unicredit’s 65.66 million dollars of class 1 capital, which just precedes Intesa SanPaolo, thirty-fifth, by far our largest bank in terms of size, revenues, profits and capitalization. . Among the first 50 places, nothing more. In addition to the numbers, there are indications from the ECB. The line, it is recalled in the report, “is clearly in favor of a consolidated European banking system, which can ensure market integration, diversification of sources of income, fragmentation of risks, and greater stability for a policy of rates and prices that can be managed even in contexts emergencies like the current one “. This leads “to express an optimistic judgment on these assumptions in a context of mergers and acquisitions”. On the other hand, however, observes the document, “we could generate the fear of seeing some of our national jewels parading in the event of aggression, hostile takeovers, with imaginable economic and social repercussions”.