[17200]
March 11, 2004
TO: INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE No. 14-04
RE: ITALY CONSIDERS NEW SUPER-REGULATORY AUTHORITY TO REPLACE
SECURITIES REGULATOR
The Italian government recently issued a bill to reorganize the current system of
regulatory authorities. A brief memorandum of Italian counsel describing the role of a
proposed new regulator and its possible implications for financial institutions is attached.
According to counsel, the current draft of the bill would create a new super-regulatory
authority that would be vested specifically with the authority to protect investors in the
financial, insurance, and pension sectors. The new authority would not replace all of the
current regulators but would replace CONSOB, the securities regulator.
The current draft would assign to the new authority the Bank of Italy’s regulatory and
supervisory powers over the banking and financial sectors that are currently exercised jointly
with CONSOB. With respect to persons or companies performing asset management and
investment services, all supervisory tasks currently performed by the Bank of Italy would be
transferred to the new authority with certain exceptions. Moreover, acquisitions of material
interests in Italian banks and asset management companies would no longer be subject solely to
the scrutiny of the Bank of Italy.
According to Italian counsel, the bill will likely be further amended by the Italian
Parliament in the next few months and will not be finalized before June 2004.
Jennifer S. Choi
Associate Counsel
Attachment (in .pdf format)