BANKS sicken slowly but die fast. For years Banca Popolare di Vicenza and Veneto Banca, in the prosperous Veneto, in north-east Italy, had been plagued by mismanagement. Even criminal investigations are under way. For months the Italian government had been wrangling with European authorities over the terms of a bail-out. For weeks it had seemed improbable that private investors would put in money alongside the state, as the European Commission insisted.

银行的病症发展缓慢却易“暴死”。多年来，在意大利东南部繁华的威尼托大区的维琴察大众银行（Banca Popolare di Vicenza）和威尼托银行（Veneto Banca）因管理不善而陷入重重危机，甚至正在接受刑事调查。几个月来，意大利政府一直在与欧盟当局纠缠紧急援助的条件。几周以来，如同欧盟委员会所坚持的那样，私人投资者似乎不大可能参与国家的援助行动。

On June 23rd the European Central Bank (ECB) declared that the banks were “failing or likely to fail”. Two days later, after a frantic weekend, the Italian government pronounced them dead: their good assets were sold to Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s second-biggest lender, for a token €1 ($1.14), and their dud ones put into a “bad bank”. The operation may cost Italian taxpayers €17bn. This is the second call on Italy’s public purse this month. On June 1st the commission approved, in principle, the rescue of long-troubled Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the fourth-biggest bank, which is expected to cost the state €6.6bn.

6月23日，欧洲中央银行（ECB）宣布了这两家银行“破产或即将破产”。两天后，经过手忙脚乱的周末之后，意大利政府宣布这两家银行破产：它们的优质资产以一欧元的价格出售给意大利第二大贷款银行联合圣保罗银行（Intesa Sanpaolo），它们的无用资产转入“坏账银行”。这一操作可能花费纳税人170亿欧元。这是意大利国库在六月第二次打开钱袋子。6月1日，欧洲委员会原则上批准了对长期受困的欧洲第四大银行锡耶纳银行（Monte dei Paschi di Siena）的援助，预计将耗费意大利66亿欧元。

The Veneto banks’ clients breathed a sigh of relief when branches opened on June 26th. So did the stockmarket: bank shares rose. So did holders of the lenders’ senior bonds, which will be taken on by Intesa. In early June they had traded at below 74 cents on the euro. They jumped to above par (see chart).

威尼托银行分行在6月26日开业时，该银行的客户松了一口气；股市也松了一口气：银行股上涨。持有这些贷款银行的高级债券的人也松了一口气，因为这些债券将由意大利联合银行来承担。在六月初，这些债券的交易价格还低于的7.4欧，现已超过票面价值。

Yet the bail-out has sown confusion—and consternation—about the euro zone’s new, and scarcely tested, system of treating failing banks. After the ECB’s declaration, responsibility passed to the Single Resolution Board (SRB), a separate agency set up by the commission.

然而，此次紧急救助行动引起了人们对此次欧元区全新的，未经测试的处理破产银行制度的极大困惑和惊恐。欧央行宣布推出这个制度之后，责任便传给了欧盟委员会设立的独立机构单一处置委员会（SRB）。

Only one other such case has reached the SRB. On June 6th the ECB deemed Banco Popular, Spain’s sixth-biggest bank, to be in its death throes. The SRB put Popular into “resolution”—the European procedure for winding up banks—and overnight it was sold to Santander, Spain’s biggest lender, also for €1. Under rules that came into force in January 2016, equity, bonds (both senior and junior) and deposits over €100,000 must take losses, to the value of 8% of total liabilities, before public money is injected into a bank. Shareholders and junior bondholders were wiped out, but senior creditors were spared. Taxpayers did not pay a cent; Santander will raise €7bn in equity.

只有其它类似的案子才能提交单一处置委员会。6月6日，欧央行认定西班牙第六大银行大众银行即将破产。单一处置委员会将大众银行列入“处理名单”——欧洲清算银行的程序，一夜之间，大众银行以1欧元的价格出售给西班牙最大的放贷银行桑坦德银行（Santander）。根据2016年1月生效的法律，在公共资金注入银行之前，超过10万欧元的股本、债券（无论主次）和储蓄金必须计入损失，以总债务的8%计算。股东和高级债券持有者都剔除在外，但债权人免于此祸。纳税人不曾支付一分钱；桑坦德银行将融资70亿欧元。

The SRB dealt with the Italian pair differently. It judged that it was “not warranted in the public interest” to put them into resolution. Their demise would not have a “significant adverse impact on financial stability”, because of their limited interconnections with other banks. (At the end of 2016 they were Italy’s 10th- and 11th-biggest by assets.) The SRB instead decided that they should be dealt with under Italian insolvency law. Shareholders and holders of junior debt will suffer losses, though retail investors, who own €200m in junior bonds, will be compensated for “mis-selling”; Italian banks routinely sold such bonds to retail customers. Senior creditors were untouched.

单一处置委员会对意大利银行的处理方式有所不同。它认为将这两家银行列为处置状态是“不能保证公众利益”的。他们的破产并不会“对金融稳定性造成不利影响”，因为他们与其它银行的合作有限。（2016年年底，他们的资产在意大利只排在第十至十一位。）相反，单一处置委员会决定用根据意大利清算法来解决它们的问题。持股人和次级债务所有者将损失惨重，虽然拥有2万欧元次级债务的散户投资者将因“不当销售”而得到补偿。意大利银行通常会向私人客户销售这一类的债券。高级债券人没有涉及其中。

Although the board saw no risk to stability, the government perceived a danger to the Veneto’s economy. Intesa will be paid €3.5bn to offset the effect of the extra assets on its capital ratios. It will also get €1.3bn to cover integration costs, including the closure of around 600 branches. Its market share in the region will rise to 30%. Mediobanca, an investment bank, estimates the acquisitions will yield profits of €250m by 2020. The government is also putting up €12bn in guarantees against potential losses, although it expects to spend only a small fraction of that; and some of the banks’ senior debt was state-guaranteed, so it may have saved money there. The commission’s competition arm approved the aid.

虽然董事会认为不存在稳定性风险问题，意大利政府却认为这会威胁威尼托的经济。意大利联合银行将获得35亿欧元，用以抵消因额外资产对其资本比率上造成的影响。它将获得130亿欧元的资金用于整合业务，其中包括关闭近600家分支机构。该银行在当地的市场份额将上升至30%。投资银行Mediobanca预计，截至2020年，此次兼并将实现2.5亿欧元利润。意大利政府拨款120亿欧元以防止出现潜亏，不过预计这笔资金的支出会不多；该银行的部分高级债务由国家提供担保，因此该银行能节省一部分资金。欧盟委员会的市场竞争部门同意此次援助的方案。

Using national insolvency will also suit Italy’s banks as a whole. Resolution would have cost them €12.5bn under the country’s deposit-guarantee scheme, putting an unwelcome dent in their capital ratios. The deal also frees money in Atlante, a fund backed by Italian financial institutions, which had been earmarked for buying the Veneto banks’ bad loans. It may now be spent on Monte dei Paschi’s.

国家清算的方式也适合意大利的所有银行。在国家储蓄方案的保证下，这种处置方式会花费125亿欧元，让他们的资本比率受到不良影响。这项交易也让由意大利金融机构资助的基金Atlante的资金获得流通。这个基金一直专门用于购买威尼托银行的不良贷款。现在它将被用购买锡耶纳银行的不良贷款。

Critics—most vocally, some German MEPs—lament the splurge of public money: Europe’s new rules, after all, are supposed to discourage that. They argue that the bail-out has put paid to Europe’s proposed “banking union”, in which one set of rules should apply to all. That is overblown, says Nicolas Véron of Bruegel, a Brussels think-tank, and the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, DC. Banking union is incomplete: this episode serves as a reminder. “The single resolution mechanism is not really single as long as you have different insolvency regimes for banks,” says Mr Véron.

一些批评人士——一些德国的欧盟议员以口头方式表达——痛惜这是对大众钱财的挥霍：欧洲的新法是应该阻止这种行为。他们认为这种紧急救助行为对欧洲提议的“银行联盟”付出了代价，因为这个概念对欧洲所有银行制订了监管规定。布鲁塞尔智库布鲁盖尔（Bruegel）及美国华盛顿特区的彼得森国际经济研究所的尼古拉斯·贝隆（Nicolas Véron） 称，这言过其实。这个事正好提醒了人们：银行联盟不是无懈可击的。贝隆说道：“如果银行有不同的无力偿还体制，单一处置机制就不会真正的单一机制。”

Moreover, given the wretched state of the Veneto banks, their acquirer could demand a dowry; Santander was willing to raise money to absorb an essentially sound Popular. Arguably, Italy should have sorted out its mess sooner, before Europe’s stricter bail-out rules came into force; but it has spent a pittance compared with what other countries shelled out after the financial crisis.

此外，鉴于威尼托银行的悲惨境地，收购方可以要求一个附加物；桑坦德银行曾愿意集资来收购大名鼎鼎的大众银行。仍具争议的是，在欧洲严格的紧急救助生效之前，意大利本可以迅速地进行一番整顿；但对比其他国家的所作所为，意大利政府在经济危机发生之后的作为仍是聊聊。

Italy’s pile of non-performing loans is at last shrinking. But worries linger—notably about Carige, a Genoese bank. While the economy continues to crawl, many lenders will struggle for profit. Although consolidation is taking place, Italy’s bank branches still outnumber its pizzerias; despite recent reform, recovery of bad debts is still slow. Bail-outs are forgivable—if they mean a fresh start. Time for Italy, if it can, to prove the doubters wrong.

意大利堆积的不良贷款最终开始减少，不过，担忧仍然存在，尤其是对热那亚的银行Carige。在经济持续恢复的同时，贷款银行将为实现利润而努力。虽然清算行动正在进行，意大利的各家银行的分支机构依旧多于比披萨店的数量；虽然最近有所改革，坏账的恢复也仍旧很缓慢。紧急援助行动是可以理解的——如果这意味着银行业的新开始。时间能让意大利证明——如果它可以的话——怀疑者们是错的。

编译：张冕

审校：张楚燕

编辑：翻吧君

来源：经济学人