Rome - Italy's banking sector is 'less sophisticated' than
in other European nations and hence more 'robust' in dealing with the
current financial crisis, Italian Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti
said Thursday.
He was adressing parliament on measures approved Wednesday by
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government to restore confidence
in the country's banks.
Besides an existing provision guaranteeing bank deposits of up to
103,000 euros (140,000 dollars), the state would assist banks that
risked failure because of an inability to raise capital on the
market, Tremonti indicated.
'Banking interventions will be on a case-by-case basis,' Tremonti
told parliamentarians. 'That's why we didn't give any numbers for the
amount of possible interventions. We will do what is enough.'
On Wednesday, Italian media had reported the government intended
to set up a rescue fund of 20 billion euros for the country's banking
industry - a move similar to the British government's 50-billion-
pound (87-billion-dollar) rescue package for leading banks in
Britain.
Tremonti said that any eventual aid to the banks would be in line
with Italy's European Union commitments to keep the budget deficit
below the bloc's limit of 3 per cent of gross domestic product.
He also said measures were aimed as a last resort to 'safeguard
the taxpayer' whose capital was deposted in bank accounts, 'not as
support to those executives who made management errors.'
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