Italy's approval of Monte dei Paschi deal raises new questions

By Stefano Bernabei and Silvia Aloisi ROME (Reuters) - Italy's Monte dei Paschi bank hoped to become a big player of European finance when it bought rival Antonveneta in 2007. Instead, the takeover triggered a decline that is culminating in the 500-year-old bank putting itself up for sale. Now, evidence uncovered by Reuters shows Italian regulators knew of the risks harboured at Antonveneta before approving the deal. In a 2006 audit, the Bank of Italy found that Antonveneta was inefficient, inadequately governed and filled with debts likely to default. The regulator summed up its findings in a March 2007 letter sent to the bank and seen by Reuters. Months later, the Bank of Italy approved its takeover with few reservations. At the time, bank acquisitions were in vogue, especially in a fragmented Italian market. Regulation was far lighter in the years preceding the world's financial crisis. Still, the audit raises questions about whether Italy’s central bank should have done more to ensure Monte dei Paschi had the financial bandwidth to absorb the purchase. "Clearly the Bank of Italy overestimated the strength of Monte dei Paschi at the time,” said Nicolas Veron, a senior fellow at the Bruegel think tank. A Bank of Italy official said the central bank had fully complied with existing rules. The official, who asked not to be named because of a judicial investigation regarding Monte dei Paschi, said the regulator asked - before its approval – that Monte dei Paschi strengthen its capital to absorb the deal. “The Bank of Italy did what was required of it, appropriately and on time,” added European Central Bank spokesman Ronan Sheridan in an e-mailed statement. The Bank of Italy's approval is relevant today because Antonveneta’s old problems are a reason Monte dei Paschi failed last year's ECB assessment of lenders. The Siena bank, which has tapped shareholders for 13 billion euros since the Antonveneta deal, is now trying to raise some 3 billion euros in extra capital before finding a buyer. More broadly, the issue highlights the limits of regulators at a time of great financial tumult. Before the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 unearthed the huge gambles banks were taking on risky home loans, regulators were far less strict in how much capital they required banks to hold. The requirements have more than tripled since then. In Europe, the person leading a drive to bulletproof banks against future crises is ECB President Mario Draghi. He was running Italy's central bank in 2007. "Bank regulators are always playing catch-up with the banks they are charged with regulating," said Mark Williams, a former bank examiner for the U.S. Federal Reserve and now a lecturer on banking and risk management at Boston University. "Monte dei Paschi was a painful personal experience for Draghi. Now he, like the Fed has done in the U.S., is taking very strong action on capital to potentially prevent the next financial crisis.” The ECB declined requests for a comment from Draghi. DIFFERENT WORLD Draghi took over as Italy's central bank chief in 2005 with a mandate to rebuild the regulator's battered reputation. His predecessor had been placed under investigation and would later be convicted for market violations aimed at thwarting a foreign takeover of Antonveneta. To encourage mergers, Draghi scrapped a requirement that lenders needed preliminary approval from the Bank of Italy before embarking on domestic takeovers. In 2005, Antonveneta was bought by Dutch lender ABN Amro. The year after, the Bank of Italy audited the Italian bank. In November 2007, Monte dei Paschi announced its nine billion euro cash purchase of Antonveneta from Spain's Santander, which had since bought the bank from ABN. The price nearly totalled Monte dei Paschi’s market value. Santander paid 6.6 billion euros just months earlier. Monte dei Paschi forged the deal without due diligence. Chairman Giuseppe Mussari would later tell his board he feared Antonveneta would be bought by a rival. A due diligence would likely have given Monte dei Paschi access to the Bank of Italy audit before the deal was agreed. Instead, it only became aware of the audit when the sale was closed in May 2008, according to former executives. Mussari did not respond to requests to comment for this story. To complete the deal, Monte dei Paschi needed Bank of Italy approval. The regulator could not reveal the audit because of confidentiality rules, according to a person familiar with regulatory procedures. It officially warned the bank about Antonveneta’s souring loans and ineffective management structure when it gave preliminary approval in March 2008. In that approval, the regulator told the bank to stick to its 6-billion euro capital-strengthening plan. It also demanded changes to a financing scheme used to partly fund the takeover. The central bank also cautioned Monte dei Paschi informally. “Do things properly,” one top regulator told Monte dei Paschi management, according to a transcript of the individual's testimony to police, seen by Reuters. Since the acquisition, the financing scheme questioned by the Bank of Italy is the subject of a judicial investigation. Prosecutors allege Monte dei Paschi misrepresented the scheme to regulators. Monte dei Paschi has denied wrongdoing. Mussari and other officials have been convicted for thwarting regulation in a separate case related to loss-making derivative trades the bank undertook between 2006 and 2009. (additional reporting by Silvia Ognibene in Siena, editing by Alessandra Galloni and Anna Willard)