Fazio under fire

摘要

It seemed that it was all over bar the shouting. On July 22nd Spain's Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) abandoned its bid for Banca Nazionale del La-voro (BNL). Three days later ABN Amro of the Netherlands said its attempted takeover of Antonveneta, another Italian bank, had also failed. The battle for control of these two mid-sized banks, which dragged on for four increasingly bitter months, appeared over, leaving Fortress Italy intact. But more is now at stake. Antonio Fazio, governor of the Bank of Italy, is in trouble up to his eyebrows. Gianpiero Fiorani, the boss of a home-grown rival bidder for Antonveneta, Banca Popolare Italiana (BPI), is a friend of his. Leaked transcripts reported in the press of telephone conversations between the two tapped by government investigators suggest that the governor may have been less than neutral in his handling of the bids. There are now calls, predictably, for him to resign. On July 27th Con-sob, Italy's market regulator, suspended BPI'S bid for Antonveneta as a "precaution". How did things go so wrong?