On Friday 15 September, the European Central Bank (ECB) handed the Italian bank Banca Popolare di Vicenza a fine over its breach of European rules on the reporting of financial information and the European framework governing major risks.
The total amount of the financial penalties includes a fine of €8.7 million for failure to meet its reporting requirements in the fourth quarter of 2014 and the first half of 2015 and its annual public reporting requirements in 2014, pursuant to the EU regulation on prudential requirements applicable to banks.
On top of this outcome is a second penalty of €2.5 million for exceeding the limit laid down the major risks in the capital risks regulation, between 4 December 2015 and 31 March 2016.
Readers may recall that in June of this year, the European Commission cleared an Italian aid plan for the liquidation of Banca Popolare di Vicenza and the sale of its solvent activities to the Italian banking group Intesa Sanpaolo (see EUROPE 11816).
Justifying its decision to impose these penalties on a bank this has been placed into administration, the military institute said that “the penalties imposed take into account the severity of the breaches and the degree of responsibility of the entity”. The bank now has two months to challenge this decision for the Court of Justice of the European Union. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)