Banca Popolare di Milano Removes Risk-Weighted Assets Add-On, Indicating Better
Operational Controls
Last Wednesday, Banca Popolare di Milano S.C.a r.l. (BPM, B1 negative, E+/b2 stable3
) announced that
the Bank of Italy (BoI), Italy’s central bank, has fully removed the risk-weighted assets add-on that it had
applied to the bank since April 2011.
The removal is credit positive for BPM because it demonstrates that the central bank is satisfied with the
measures that BPM has taken to resolve the deficiencies that the regulator identified in its 2011 inspection.
The removal also indicates that BPM has met the minimum operational standards for a bank of its size,
which substantially reduces the risk that it would fail the European Central Bank’s (ECB) comprehensive
assessment, or that the ECB would identify a capital shortfall, thereby avoiding a possible creditor bail-in.
In April 2011, BPM disclosed that a regulatory inspection had revealed serious deficiencies in corporate
governance, organisation, risk management, control and group structure. This prompted the central bank to
require that BPM increase its risk-weighted assets with an add-on on some assets (Exhibit 1), which we
considered as an indirect request to increase the bank’s capitalisation (Exhibit 2). BPM had a successful
€500 million capital raise in May 2014.
The BoI’s decision to entirely remove the risk-weighted asset add-on shows that the regulator is satisfied
with the bank’s actions to resolve issues related to its real estate sector exposures, its real-estate guarantees
for mortgage loans and the way the bank manages operational risks. Although removing the risk-weighted
assets add-on does not change BPM’s intrinsic credit quality, the BoI’s decision is significant because of the
level and detail of information that the central bank, in its role as regulator, can access.
Moreover, removal of the risk-weighted assets add-on provides the bank with a much wider regulatory
capital cushion to face the ECB’s assessment. This, in turn, reduces the likelihood of involving bondholders
in a bail-in should the ECB identify a capital shortfall during its assessment.
However, we note that BPM continues to face corporate governance challenges, as the influence of its
shareholders/employees have been left substantially unchanged since the regulatory inspection, despite the
various attempts by management to make changes. BPM’s corporate governance structure has been a factor
preventing the bank from successfully implementing the sector’s best organisation practices.