ROME: The crescendo is growing louder to deny Italy’s current central bank Governor, Ignazio Visco, a second six-year term to lead oversight of the country’s banks after his current session ends in November. As reported by Dow Jones, there is increased political pressure in Italy not to reappoint Visco. Critics point to the central bank’s performance in managing the crisis that has afflicted the country’s banks in recent years.
The Italian government submits the name of its preferred candidate for the position, but Italian President, Sergio Mattarella, of the centre-left Democratic Party makes the final decision and consults with the leadership of the central bank. The government has not said whether it will propose Visco. The next Italian general election is due no later than May 2018 and opposition to Visco among political parties is growing as critics become more vocal. Criticism comes from populist parties like the anti-establishment, Five Star Movement, which say that failure to manage the banking crisis in the country has led to multi-billion euro government bailouts and a loss of confidence in banks amongst investors and the public.
In September, Adusbef, a consumer group for financial services customers along with lawmakers from Five Star Movement launched a petition to stop Visco’s reappointment. Elio Lannutti, the honorary president of Adusbef was quoted in the FT saying: “In six years, he has only made disasters. We cannot allow the principle that those who make mistakes don’t pay for them, and actually get rewarded.” Fuelling doubts, the ruling centre-left Democratic Party, presented a parliamentary motion on Tuesday lambasting the bank’s performance under Visco’s leadership and calling for the nomination of “the most suitable figure to guarantee fresh trust” in the central bank. The motion outlined that “In recent years, doubts have emerged as to the efficacy of the Bank of Italy’s banking oversight, given the repeated and serious situations of crisis and instability in the banking system that could have been mitigated by more timely and incisive management.”
