(ANSA) - The publication of new transcripts of wiretaps made during probes on takeover bids for two Italian banks fuelled a storm over Bank of Italy
Governor Antonio Fazio's role in the affair on Thursday.
Corriere della Sera's latest report sparked fresh opposition calls for Fazio's resignation despite Labour
Minister Roberto Maroni's suggestion to wait for the governor's version during an upcoming meeting of the Interministerial Committee on Credit and Savings (CICR).
The battle for control of Banca Nazionale del Lavoro and Banca Antonveneta has reaped front-page headlines in recent weeks after it was alleged that Fazio worked behind the scenes to help Italian banks against their foreign rivals.
Italian papers began publishing leaks of the transcripts of the phone taps late in July, after Spain's BBVA signalled it was about to back down in its bid for Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL), paving the way for a takeover by Unipol, a small Italian insurance company.
At the same time, Dutch bank ABN AMRO also looked ready to give way to its local competitor Banca Popolare Italiana (BPI) in its bid for Antonveneta. Thursday's transcripts indicated that Fazio had overruled Bank of Italy inspectors Claudio Clemente and Giovanni Castaldi who spotted irregularities in their review of BPI's bid for Antonveneta.
When the inspectors refused to change their report, Fazio turned to outside consultants and, after their positive appraisal, gave a last-minute go-ahead to BPI's bid. In the case of the takeover bid for BNL, transcripts of phone calls made by BankItalia Chief Inspector Francesco Frasca, one of Fazio's closest aides, show that the central bank favoured Unipol while refusing to talk to bankers from
Spanish competitor BBVA.
The wiretaps published by Corriere were requested by Milan magistrates investigating 20 financiers connected to BPI's bid, including CEO Giampiero Fiorani. Fiorani, a close friend of Fazio's, has been barred by Milan prosecutor Clementina Forleo from acting as BPI's CEO for the next two months.
Rome prosecutors, who are also conducting their own probe into BPI's bid, have placed Fiorani and Frasca under investigation.
Although Fazio, 69, is not officially being probed, the publication of the transcripts has sparked indignation from both critics and friends, albeit for different reasons. Critics argue that Fazio, who is the only governor among the Group of Seven nations central bankers to have an open-ended term, must go.
Their argument is that a governor must be impartial and above suspicion, as the image of the central bank must remain spotless. Calls for his resignation have also come from the Bank of Italy's trade union FABI, which reiterated on Thursday that unless he promptly denied the latest reports, he should step down.
Economy Minister Domenico Siniscalco warned the cabinet last week that the affair was "creating a credibility problem for the country" and had already caused alarm among his European Union colleagues.
But Fazio's friends and Premier Silvio Berlusconi are outraged that the transcripts were leaked to the press, saying this amounted to an unwarranted invasion of privacy. They say that some of the transcripts, which included private conversations of Fazio's wife and the starlet girlfriend of a top financier, should never have been published.
The government said this week it would present a bill at the start of September introducing tough limits on wiretapping and longer jail sentences against whoever leaks or publishes transcripts.
Berlusconi, who said he was personally involved in drafting the legislation, said he envisaged prison sentences of between five and 10 years for breaches of privacy involving unjustified use of phone taps. He said only probes into terrorism and the Mafia merited the practice.
