The Quaderno di Ricerca Giuridica No 95 is devoted to the publication of papers presented at the Italian-Spanish conference held at the Bank of Italy on 21 October 2022 on the topic 'Banking crises: resolution, liquidation and reform perspectives in the light of the Spanish and Italian experience'.
The conference arose from the need to examine the legal issues that emerged from the practice of application of the two legal systems, Italian and Spanish, in the perspective of future reforms of the European regulatory framework. The current regulation of bank crisis management leaves open interpretative doubts, not yet clarified by European case law. On the other hand, alongside the constant confrontation within the European framework, there is also a need to deepen, from a comparative law perspective, the study of the respective national legal systems, which retain important functions even in the current framework, especially in the management of the crises of small- and medium-sized banks.
The Spanish legal system represents a privileged observatory for the analysis of legal issues relating to resolution, given the experience gained with the early introduction of instruments later adopted at European level. At the same time, Spain is looking with interest at compulsory administrative liquidation, applicable to Italian banks in place of ordinary judicial liquidation, both to liquidate residual entities and to manage the crises of smaller banks, for which the public interest required for resolution were not recognised. These are issues that are currently being discussed in numerous fora, and in respect of which a review of the current European legislative framework is planned.
Some cases of banking crises that emerged in the run-up to the publication of the Quaderno then confirm how the abandonment of rigid criteria and recourse to forms of public intervention are useful - both in the new and in the old continent - when it is necessary to protect deposits (even unsecured ones) in order to prevent the emergence of systemic risks. Against this backdrop, a reflection on the instruments provided by the current European framework is all the more appropriate.
The Italian-Spanish conference in October 2022 was introduced by a speech by Governor Ignazio Visco and was divided into two sessions: the first involved the respective national authorities and examined the measures for the prevention and management of banking crises in the Spanish and Italian legal systems, recent experiences and prospects for reform; the second session instead hosted speeches from the academic world of the two countries, which analysed the critical aspects of the discipline and prospects for reform. The conference concluded with an illustration of the ongoing Unidroit project on Bank Insolvency, thus emphasising the importance of a global approach in identifying possible regulatory solutions, even beyond the borders of the European regulatory framework.
