Among the
emergency measure passed Wednesday night, the government would step in to
guarantee deposits up to the currently insured level of euro103,000
(US$140,900) should a bank be unable to repay the sum. The move gave bank
stocks a boost in
Speaking at a
news conference with his Romanian counterpart, Berlusconi said the measure
wasn't taken "to protect depositors, because that isn't a worry. The main
reason for our intervention was to allow banks to operate" in a way that
keeps the country functioning.
Berlusconi
repeated that no Italian bank would be allowed to fail and no depositors would
lose their savings because the banking sector remains solid.
He said
nationalizing Italian banks was not foreseen as a necessary measure, but added that if
the government were to intervene it would receive preference shares
without voting rights.
That statement
follows
Italian Finance
Minister Giulio Tremonti
told Parliament on Thursday that the government would be able to aid the banks
without violating its pledge to keep the deficit within 3 percent of GDP.
http://www.portfolio.com/news-markets/national-news/ap/2008/10/09/italian-bank-shares-recover