When Chiamparino of the PDminusL or Tosi of the Lega were dealing with Intesa San Paolo and Unicredit, they did that as shareholders wanting to get the dividends. This is because the parties indirectly control percentages of the banks by means of the banking foundations of the various cities, from Turin to Verona. The throwing out of Profumo was down to the drying up of dividends coming to the Foundations. The increase in the Libyan participation in Unicredit was a pretext, in fact who still remembers it? How much money arrives at the 88 banking foundations each year? A flood of money. The Italian banks distribute half their net profits in dividends to shareholders. The Foundations use this money for non-profit projects in the territory. The profits of the banks are spent by the Foundations for activities of their choice (whose possible range of choices is very wide) to obtain an electoral advantage. The parties can also decide the banking appointments. An example is Chiamparino who chose the president of the Board of Directors of Intesa San Paolo in that, as an auditor, he was delegated by the ‘Fondazione San Paolo’ that owns 10% of Intesa San Paolo.
Fassino who rejoices in having a bank or Boss(ol)i who wants the banks of the North after the victory in Piedmont and the region of Veneto are symptoms of a ‘bedlam of roles’, words from the schizophrenics of politics transformed into bankers. Whose task should not be gathering in dividends or appointing people to banks, but administering the public good. Money buys agreement, votes, and this is one of the hidden tasks of the Foundations. The capitalisation of the Italian banks is among the lowest in Europe, basically the coffers are in tears. The mechanism of the banks being ‘cows to be milked’ that are not reinvesting an important part of their profits because they are destined for the parties is about to end. The first reason is the crisis, the second is the result of new rules from Basel III that imposes the increase in equity capital in relation to possible risks, by 2013. The safety blanket is shrinking. Which will collapse first, the parties at a local level or the banks?
PS What I would like is for the spending by the Foundations and the motivation for each choice to be made public, right down to the grassroots in a way that is understandable to the citizens.