The resolution of Banca delle Marche by the Italian authorities at the end of 2015 was essentially determined by its failure and the European Commission cannot be held responsible for having prevented its rescue by the Interbank Deposit Protection Fund (IDPF), the General Court of the European Union ruled in a judgment delivered on Wednesday 30 June (case T-635/19).
Several shareholder entities of Banca delle Marche believe that the behaviour of the European Commission prior to the resolution procedure of the main bank of the Italian region of Marche prevented a recapitalisation of this failing bank by the IDPF fund, a private law consortium of a mutual nature that came to the rescue of Banca Tercas (see EUROPE 12219/23).
The General Court of the European Union finds against the applicants on the grounds that they have not established a causal link between the Commission’s allegedly unlawful conduct and the alleged damage.
According to the court, the Commission did not threaten or pressure the Italian authorities to block or prohibit possible interventions by the IDPF in favour of Banca delle Marche. It merely reminded them of the need to give prior notification of planned measures and not to implement them before the European institution had given a legal interpretation of the concept of ‘aid’.
Furthermore, the General Court considers that the applicants could not rely on the Commission’s decision to initiate a formal procedure to analyse the intervention of the IDPF in favour of Banca Tercas, a decision in which the EU institution had referred to the existence of State aid, inasmuch as there were no plans for a firm intervention by the IDPF in favour of Banca delle Marche.
He added that the decision to initiate the resolution of Banca delle Marche was primarily due to its critical situation (total losses of €1.445 billion, asset deficit of €1.432 billion), which made it impossible for the FITD fund to intervene.
See the judgment: https://bit.ly/2SD74rH (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)