Brussels 31/03/2005 (Agence Europe) - Responding on Wednesday to a question on the current status of the purchase of two Italian banks by European banks and on the work under way at the Commission on removing the regulatory obstacles to cross-border bank mergers, a spokesman for Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy said that “of course, the Commission is delighted to see a single market being created and working in the banking sector”. He recognised that Mr McCreevy's letter to Mr Fazio, Governor of the Banca d'Italia, was part of the Commission's effort to ensure national authorities complied with the rules of the single market. The Banca d'Italia is responsible for decisions on cross-border bank mergers.
At the request of the Ecofin council held in Scheveningen in September 2004, the Commission is currently conducting a study on the regulatory barriers to cross-border bank mergers. It wants to make sure there is no discrimination on national grounds in the Italian and European banking sectors and that a national authority cannot refuse a foreign takeover of a national bank by invoking the nationality of the purchaser as a criterion for refusal (see EUROPE, 19 February 2005). Nationality is not among the criteria defined in article 16 of directive 2000/12/EC relating to the taking up and pursuit of the business of credit institutions that allow a takeover to be blocked. The results of the study were initially scheduled for release at the informal Ecofin council in May, but should now be presented to the Manchester informal council in September under the UK presidency.
At the beginning of March Competition Commissioner Nellie Kroes announced that the Commission intended before the summer to launch enquiries into the financial services sector. Insurance and personal banking were the sectors directly targeted (see EUROPE, 9 March 2005).
Spanish bank BBVA has officially launched a public exchange offering for Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, Italy's sixth-largest bank, for a total of 6.4 billion EUR. Dutch bank ABN AMRO has officially launched an offer to purchase for Antonveneta, Italy's ninth-largest bank, for a total of 6.3 billion EUR.