(4:16)
Today I received an email about the collapse of the Banco Emiliano Romagnolo (BER) and the freezing of current accounts and securities accounts (that are not owned by the bank) in accordance with an order coming from the Bank of Italy. The blog has checked up by making a telephone call (the voice has been modified to avoid problems for the person who gave us this information) and found that this is all true. Just try and imagine yourself waking up tomorrow without the possibility of getting access to your current account, to the bank machine, to the securities you hold, to the automatic payments made through the account. How would you feel? Below I’m giving the notification I received and the interview with the BER.

Notification

”I want to tell you that the Banco Emiliano Romagnolo has been blocked by the Bank of Italy and that all its current accounts have been frozen so as to stop everyone from withdrawing money. They are trying to sell the bank to the Intesa Group. Nothing more is known. And they say that up until 7 January nothing more will be known. They will have a peaceful Christmas holiday! And it’s not because of the cold weather! Like so many other people, I find that I cannot receive payments into my account, or my salaries, nor can payments be made and I cannot take money out. All this has happened without warning and keeping everything hidden. Even now you cannot read anything about it in the newspapers. You ring up the bank directly to see that it’s all true:
0514135595 - 0514135539
Greetings" A.C.

Transcript of the telephone call made by the blog to the BER:

BER:It was during a measure taken by the Bank of Italy on 7 December when they established the freeze on the money coming in and going out of the current accounts, this protection of the current accounts, looking after the transition procedures that are applied right now means that the account is frozen. It’s not possible to make or receive payments, process direct debits or use the cash machine. The account is completely blocked. Unfortunately even we employees are in the same situation. We cannot do any shopping. If someone has another possibility, the situation has been crystallized in the state in which it is found. You see, we ourselves who could have protected ourselves, to make a withdrawal, we ourselves were told from one minute to the next, above all in the relationship with the clients. At 6 o’clock in the evening, this decision became affective when it was published in the Bank of Italy’s Official Bulletin and in the national newspapers. On the morning of the 7th when the branches opened, they told us this. It’s a drastic measure and it clearly causes and will cause all sorts of enormous problems that I suppose the Bank of Italy can do and it will get loads of denunciations. Be that as it may, obviously, the ones with big difficulties are above all the companies. A terrible disaster.
Blog: Apart from the money held in the current accounts, how about the way the bank acts as a simple intermediary in relation to the escrow accounts for securities. Has even that been blocked? BER: Yes. Everything. Completely everything.
Blog: The securities are in the name of the current account holder, not in the bank’s name. BER: Yes. They are blocked in as much as they cannot be transferred from one account to another, they are there and they stay there until they are unblocked. Then each person can do what they like with them.
Blog: So in this period of “freeze” I cannot deal with my shares? BER: No, but nor can you use your current account.
Blog: Not even through another organisation? BER: Absolutely not. You see not even the dividends coming in, are being dealt with.
Blog: On my account it’s easier to understand because it’s an asset of the bank. BER: I understand your point, however even securities are part of a sort of total liquidity. I believe that most people are worried about liquidity to go shopping, to pay the mortgage, the utility bills, the rent.
Blog: Yes, in the worst case, if the current account is blocked, I sell some shares and I get by in another way.
BER: Yes, I understand , certainly, in fact this is a problem for the Stock Exchange, for everything, because there’s a sort of contract of sale, at least of negotiation, and anyway there’s investment as long as it holds up.