King Fazio

10 June 2005

If Germany doesn t object to an Italian bid for HVB, it will become even harder for the Bank of Italy to stop foreign banks buying in Italy. With the EU, investors, regulators and prosecutors turning against Fazio, the central bank boss is increasingly isolated.

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ABN Amro, the Dutch bank, has asked an administrative tribunal to rule on whether the Bank of Italy should have given Banca Popolare di Lodi, another Italian bank, authorisation to raise its stake in Antonveneta.

The European Commission has sent the central bank letters asking it to explain why, among other things, it authorised Lodi to raise its stake in Antonveneta before extending the same authorisation to ABN. The Bank of Italy said it is acting within the law.

Meanwhile, Consob, the Italian stockmarket regulator, has ruled that Lodi and other Italian investors were acting in concert when they built up stakes in Antonveneta. Given the alleged concert party owns more than 30% of Antonveneta, it is forced to launch a mandatory offer in cash for the rest of the bank. Lodi has appealed Consob's decision.

Milan prosecutors have also opened a probe on Lodi. They are considering freezing hundreds of millions of euros, according to a report in the Financial Times, in the context of an investigation into whether Lodi lent money at below market rates, and whether that money was then used to buy Antonveneta shares. The loans may have been as much as E500m, according to the report.

In response to press articles reporting that Gianpiero Fiorani, Lodi's chief executive officer, had been named in the Milan probe, Lodi said it was confident he had done nothing wrong.

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