La funzione delle BCC in un mercato in trasformazione: ipotesi di riforma e specificità operativa

In view of a legislative reform going to change ab imis the Italian ‘Credito Cooperativo’ system (BCC), this paper puts under scrutiny the peculiarities of mutual banks – which, after the company law reform at the beginning of this millennium, were forced to remain ‘prevalently mutual’- reflecting their full integration in the surrounding territory. BCCs were essential in funding SMEs over time, so that changes in their morphology would alter their prerogatives and, consequently, be detrimental to this important productive sector. This presumption is further confirmed by EU indications, especially those related to the Capital Market Union (see Action Plan, chapter 5) which underlines the key role played by cooperative credit institutions. In this context, one should not fully agree with the reform proposal supported by Federcasse and adopted in the decree-law, which aims at putting all Italian mutual banks under a single holding company. In fact, this would result in a over-sized structure impeding to sustain local economies, with obvious consequences within the overall system. A different, more restrained form of consolidation (for instance, through the creation of regional groups) would allow BCCs to pursue the regulator’s goals, namely the strengthening of capital bases jointly with the integration within their own territory.