Bank-Insurer Disagreements Over Eurovita Bailout Plan Threaten Policyholder Savings

It still complicates the road to saving Eurovita. According to what appears to MF-Milan Financethe positions between banks and insurers for the bailout plan would still be quite distant, despite some progress compared to the past few weeks.

The crux is that of the possible early redemptions with respect to the natural expiry of the policies which may be requested by customers once the block introduced by IVASS has been eliminated. If the banks seated at the table (about fifteen in all with Fineco, Fideura, Crede from Sparkasse leader) appear aware of the need to take on this burden for the Eurovita policies that they have distributed in their branches, it is on the methods of intervention that the positions with the five big insurance companies called into the field (Intesa Vita, Poste, Generali, Unipol and Allianz) appear to be divergent today.

The question does not concern so much the amount that the banks should guarantee, equal to approximately 6 billion in separate management (theoretical calculation that is obtained if all customers first redeemed their policies), but the cost of this operation. The institutes, given the run-up in interest rates, would have asked the companies to have a rate of 2.5% on the liquidity they will have to provide for early redemptions (starting from the yield on the underlying securities). In other words, the insurance companies should add a yield to that of the securities underlying the policies which the banks would acquire in the event of surrender, to arrive precisely at 2.5%. But a clear rejection of this hypothesis would have come from the companies.

Also because the insurance companies will already have to take charge of the possible redemptions of another 3 billion policies that have been distributed outside the bank branches, in addition to the Eurovita employees who would be hired in the five companies and the capital necessary to take over the Eurovita policies. Meanwhile, time is ticking. The release of the coverage expires at the end of June and the match risks being a test for the credibility of the system in front of the 400,000 Eurovita customers involved, and beyond.