Brussels, 20/12/2005 (Agence Europe) - The governor of the Bank of Italy, Antonio Fazio, finally agreed to step down on 19 December, a few days after the announcement of investigations into his alleged insider dealing. A statement announced that 'the decision, made autonomously with a clear conscience, was taken to restore calm, in the greater interest of the country and the Bank of Italy.' The Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, said it was a very importance gesture of great responsibility, while the Director of the European Central Bank (ECB), Jean-Claude Trichet, said he was relieved and it was the best decision to take. Fazio was on the ECB's Governing Council so the ECB's credibility had been coming under fire.
Fazio had been chairman of the bank for 12 years but his standing, and that of the Bank of Italy, began a steep decline in July when leaked wiretaps showed that Fazio apparently favoured an Italian bidder over a foreign one (Dutch bank ABN-Amro) in the takeover of Banca Antonveneta. For months, the Italian government, opposition, employers, trade unions and financial sector and, more recently, the European Commission (which has issued infringement proceedings against Italy, see EUROPE 9088) had been calling for Fazio to resign, but he ignored calls to step down saying he had acted in line with Italian law and had done nothing wrong. The final straw that broke the camel's back was the imprisonment last week of Gianpiero Fiorani, former CEO of the Banca Popolare Italiana, one of the bank's involved in scandal of ABN-Amro's takeover bid for Antonveneta. Fiorani is said to have given Banca d'Italia governor Antonio Fazio sumptuous gifts from 1999 to 2003 of huge value. The ECB said this was a serous violation of the code of conduct signed by the members of its Governing Council and opened an investigation.
Among candidates to take over from Fazio are Mario Monti, former EU Competition Commissioner, Antonio Padoa-Schioppa, former member of the ECB Executive Board (currently head of Jacques Delors' foundation 'Notre Europe' in Paris), Mario Draghi, Vice-President of Goldman Sachs, once a Director General at the Italian treasury, Vittorio Grilli, Director General of the Italian treasury for the past few months, Alberto Quadrio Curzio, economics professor in Milan, and Domenico Siniscalco, former Italian treasury minister.