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Italy and European Union has reached an agreement, where a guarantee scheme will be in place to help Italian banks to place their large non-performing asset portfolio to private investors in a bid to free up the capital of the banks. It would help Italian banks to remove their financial stress. According to EU competition commissioner, Italian plan will involve securitizing banks' holdings of NPAs and move them off balance sheets to individually managed entities. It would not require any state aid, as the guarantees will be priced at market rates. EU will keep a close watch over implementation of the scheme such that no state guarantee is involved.
The response however has been mixed so far. The shares and bonds of troubled bank Monte Dei Paschi have jumped after the deal got announced. Its share price jumped almost 5% and 2021 bonds rose 4 cents to trade at 87 cents. However reactions on other banks, have not been so bright. Overall banking index in FTSEMIB is up just around 1%.
