EU to decide next wk if launching formal Italian banking sector probe

[FaGal]

EU to decide next wk if launching formal Italian banking sector probe

www.iii.co.uk - April 13, 2005


BRUSSELS (AFX) - The European Commission will decide next week whether to open a formal investigation into the Italian banking sector, said Commission spokesman Oliver Drewes.

The commission is currently "making a preliminary assessement" about whether certain Italian banks that enjoy cooperative status should in fact have this revoked, he said.

Should the assessment confirm this view, it would impact on shareholder voting rights in the sector. Cooperative banks are run on the basis of one shareholder/one vote rather than the standard one share/one vote structure.

"We are also looking at who is listed (on the stock exchange) as (such banks) should be acting under normal banking rules," Drewes said.

A dispute has been simmering between Italy and the EU over whether the country's banking system operates protectionist policies.

This has threatened to come to a head since ABN Amro and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA launched takeover bids for, respectively, cooperative bank Banca Antonveneta SpA and Banca Nazionale del Lavoro SpA.

Yesterday, Banca Popolare di Lodi - also classed as a cooperative - raised its Banca Antonveneta stake to 14.185 pct, compared with ABN 12.6 pct. ABN's 25 eur per share bid has yet to be approved by the Bank of Italy, which acts as arbiter on all merger and acquisition activity in the sector.