(ANSA) - Former Treasury chief Mario Draghi was on Thursday named Bank of Italy governor after a scandal that forced the resignation of his predecessor and dented Italy's image.
Draghi, who steered a sweeping privatisation programme in the 1990s and framed a new company takeover law protecting small investors, has huge international experience and is widely respected abroad.
Analysts say the 58-year-old investment banker is well suited to the challenge of rebuilding Italy's credibility after a banking takeover scandal that revived charges of protectionism and felled the powerful Antonio Fazio. Draghi, currently Goldman Sachs vice chairman for Europe, has represented Italy at the G7 and European Union and served on the Inter-American Development Bank, World Bank and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
He has also reportedly been in contention for the International Monetary Fund's top job.
Draghi was director general of the Treasury for ten years from 1991 to 2001 and spearheaded Europe's biggest-ever wave of privatisations. The revolution tempted wary Italians away from safe government bonds as the government put swathes of the
banking, energy and telecoms sectors on the stock market.
After helping create a new generation of small investors, Draghi set up a key protection for them in a 1998 law.
The law, which took his name, made it compulsory for an investor who had amassed 30% of a firm to launch a takeover bid for it - and pay all stockholders the same price. Analysts say this track record should help Draghi revive the central bank's image - as well as erasing the taint of corporate scandals involving the Cirio and Parmalat groups. Draghi is thought to be much more open than Fazio to foreign banks entering the Italian banking market, lured by its high margins.
Some analysts say foreign banks will eventually drive down the price of banking services.
Draghi, who is expected to take up his post at the start of February, will have a six-year once-renewable term - unlike Fazio who, until a new reform sparked by the scandal, had the job for life.
After months of stonewalling, Fazio quit on December 19, under investigation for insider trading and abuse of office. Critics said he worked behind the scenes to favour Italian bank Banca Popolare Italiana (BPI) over Dutch rival ABN Amro in a bid for the Antonveneta bank. ABN Amro eventually won out after BPI was hit by judicial probes.
