The Bank of Italy's deputy governor said today that the vast majority of the country's banks are in a better state than the small lenders whose failure and subsequent rescue this year wiped out the savings of thousands of retail investors.
The government salvaged Banca Marche, Banca Etruria, CariChieti and CariFe at the end of November, using 3.6 billion euros from a crisis fund financed by healthy banks.
In the process, people who had bought shares and junior debt took heavy losses, drawing criticism of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's government, the Bank of Italy (BOI) and the financial market regulator.
BOI Deputy Governor Luigi Federico Signorini defended the central bank's handling of the situation and said Italy's banking system had strengthened "very considerably" in recent years despite global financial turmoil.
"There are very few (banks like) Banca Etruria," Signorini said on La7 television, adding that Italian banks rely on traditional deposits and lending rather than riskier complex securities.
"In the long term, it's healthy that the banks do this kind of business, despite any difficulties it might cause," Signorini said.
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi says the losses inflicted on savers were inevitable because of new European Union rules aimed at shielding taxpayers in bank rescues.
Banking association ABI is considering taking a complaint to the European Court of Justice over the management of the rescue, and was waiting for written evidence regarding the EU's role, ABI's president Antonio Patuelli told la Repubblica newspaper.
"If we had been able to use the deposit guarantee fund, the costs would have been much lower," Patuelli said.
In a bid to avoid imposing losses on bondholders, Italian authorities tried to rescue the four failing banks using a fund financed by all lenders whose aim is to protect depositors. But the EU Commission said tapping the fund would be akin to state aid.
On the La7 talk show, Signorini rejected a suggestion that the BOI had intervened too slowly and said it had done everything in its power.