2172 banking problems ... again.....

i posted on this in the consumer part...banks and money transfers... but i realise that not many people look at this and its most probably an important point for all planning to open up accounts here or worse even to place savings

... not for the first time in recent history the govenor here is being asked to resign from the bank of italy.... its reached the stage ..well about 6 months ago that the treasury minister does not even talk to him....

anyway there are two major investigations now going on ...both involving big banks and also an investment company.... apart from insider trading and money dissapearing to the caymens.... investor funds being mis handled...etc etc... and these are big banks...ie bnl is one of the names...

the thing is we all have to use them ... for day to day life... but if you have much sense and have the option i would not be sending any savings this way... there are endless problems and very little protection...

suffice to say journalists and politicians...most probably magistrates and lawyers all get special beneficial rates from virtually any bank they use... many of the banks especially the co ops are associated with and protected by the left ... the whole lot is again under scrutiny ...most probably instigated again because a spanish and a dutch bank were both interested in aquiring an italian bank and things did not go through...the eu central bank started investigations and did not exonerate the governor here but said he worked within the banking ethics of the country... obviously they have tried to keep all quite in the past about the system with their preferential services to the press and political judiciary...but now with international and eu regs abounding...its all proving too hard to keep quite

however the governor of the bank of italy has no ethical guidlines or rules...he is self governed..if he thinks it is right he can do it... he can also not be sacked....and has refused to resign... tomorrow parliament is trying to work out a way of getting rid of him.... italy in banking/investment terms is virtually the laughing stock of the commercial world as it struggles to appear clean in its finacial practices...

so like i say .... apart from the fact that most of this is way above our heads there will be people that have been cheated out of money from these high street banks... there will be no compensation for those that have lost savings and the investigation will go on for tens of years until current politicians/entrepreneurs are either dead or too old to go to jail...

... they have just run telethon (a bit like children in need) here and the sad thing ... they collected almost e30 million... but one of the main banks to hold the money is bnl.... one of the fraudulent banks...

if you think say in the uk that if you run a bussiness account you accountant can often find several discrepancies in charges made... whats the betting here that if you had an accountant check your banking records...if he could actually work out how they charge you... there will be a significant difference between what you actually should have been charged and what you have paid...

italian banks... treat them with caution