(ANSA) - Bank of Italy Governor Antonio Fazio, who is under judicial investigation for insider trading in Milan, resigned on Monday. The move came on the eve of an emergency cabinet meeting to discuss ways of forcing the central banker to step down.
In a statement, Fazio said he was resigning "in the supreme interest of the country and the Bank of Italy."
The 69-year-old central banker said his decision has been taken "autonomously and with a clear conscience."
Milanese prosecutors have been investigating Fazio's role in the AntonVeneta takeover since September, after his close friend and former CEO of Banca Popolare Italiana (BPI) Gianpiero Fiorani was placed under investigation. Last week, Fiorani was arrested on suspicion of criminal conspiracy to embezzle. He was questioned by prosecutors during the weekend over Fazio's role in the takeover attempt.
Arrest warrants were issued for four of his associates while some 80 others were placed under investigation. Fiorani is already under investigation for price-fixing, insider trading and hindering the work of market regulators while he tried to engineer the takeover of Antonveneta.
Italian politicians unanimously welcomed the resignation of probed Bank of Italy Governor Antonio Fazio on Monday, with many faulting him for delaying the decision.
The 69-year-old Fazio will formally resign on Tuesday during a meeting of the bank's superior council, which traditionally appoints the governor.
The governor, who had an open-ended mandate, had until now fiercely resisted all pressure to resign, insisting that he had done nothing wrong and had not broken any laws. The widely-expected announcement came on the eve of an emergency cabinet meeting to discuss ways of forcing him to step down, in view of news last week that he was being probed by Milan magistrates for insider trading.
Premier Silvio Berlusconi thanked Fazio for his gesture of "great responsibility", stressing that he had personally never had any doubts over his "honesty and behaviour."
"But in view of how things have developed, I'm convinced that it was now necessary and important for Fazio to step down," said the premier, refusing to speculate on his successor.
Centre-left opposition leader Romano Prodi said Fazio's resignation was long overdue and was inevitable.
He said the opposition was ready to negotiate with the government to reach a bipartisan agreement on Fazio's successor at the central bank.
"We've got to work to find a successor who will repair the damage done over the past months and give the country back its credibility and international prestige." Prodi declined to mention names but said the new governor would have to be someone with a "high international profile and someone who knows his way around in the complicated world of central bankers."
Among the possible names that were being tossed up by politicians in Rome were those of former European Central Bank board member Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, former European Commissioner Mario Monti and Treasury Director General Vittorio Grilli.
ECB chief Jean Claude Trichet said in a statement that Fazio's was the "best possible decision to take in the greater interest of his country and the Bank of Italy."
The leader of the centrist opposition Daisy party, Francesco Rutelli, said Fazio's resignation was "inevitable and also culpably tardy. Now, we must look for new governor who meets two criteria: top authoritativeness and widespread consensus," said Rutelli, adding that it was vital to restore the honour of the central bank.
Fazio was appointed governor in 1993 but he had been with the central bank since 1960.
