Current accounts at risk, the Bio-On effect

One wonders why the Italians do not invest and leave all the money in Bank account? Because they do not trust, this is probably the real problem of our day: the total lack of confidence in the world of investments, towards institutions. And there is no lack of opportunity for this distrust not to be nourished. There are 10,000 small investors who have become embroiled in the new financial scandal called Bio-On. Ten thousand people who let themselves be captured by the web of easy earning and that now, instead, they risk finding themselves with a handful of flies in their hands and seeing their investments evaporated.

Bio-On, which entered the stock market exactly five years ago, had burned the stages, reaching up to over 1.3 billion capitalization and putting in the pocket, to those who left the investment at the right time, a gain in triple digit. Then in the middle of summer the thud: the bottom Quintessential, a speculative American fund, denounces its production incapacity and hypothesizes the falsification of the financial statements by the company itself. It is the beginning of the end. The title shoulder bag in the bag. In recent months, Bion-On remains on the flying wheel until the suspension due to the arrest of the top management of the other day when capitalization has now been reduced to 200 million with a loss of over 80%. But those 200 million of capitalization how much will they count when Bio-On has to be readmitted to trade? At this time it is easy to assume that those titles can be considered paper-waste.

Now there are 10 thousand people who are trembling, the same people who thought they had done the business of their lives. Not to mention the employees of Bio-On and their families, who now seriously risk losing their jobs. But where is who was supposed to check? We are not talking about normal market trends here. There is no mention of a company in crisis because the business has stopped working. Here we talk about fraud. A long list of functions and officials where Bio-On continued to run on the list? Why did an American fund have to intervene to uncover Pandora's box? And even in this case, is it normal that a fund that claims to earn on the collapse of a security favors the negative trend of that title?

It was the complaint of Quintessential to start the judiciary checks. Without that complaint, Bion-On would still be at the top of the list's titles in its category. It is especially important that many fund managers have already abandoned their investment in Bio-On, demonstrating foresight and the ability to read the market. However, even this did not go on alarm bells in who should have checked and not done? It is clear, at this point, that there is more than something to be reviewed in the "Italian system", which proved to be lacking from the point of view of the controls and in difficulty in regulating also the action, not really normal, of a fund like Quintessential.

The case of the Bolognese company is however the last in a series that is putting a strain on the mood of Italian savers. From the failure of the 4 banks in 2015 (Etruria, Marche, Cariferrara, Carichieti) to that of the popular Venetos, they were burned about 12 billion shares and subordinated bonds, not to mention the loss of value of the shares of institutions such as MPS and Carige, whose courses have been practically eliminated, and some tranches not yet reimbursed for bonds.

And then it was the turn of the PIR. Launched strongly, first so "pushed" also by the MEF and then blocked by the Di Maio-Salvini government. Before the stop they were invested also, and above all, by small savers as much as 17 billion euros. After the blockade of the yellow-green government even those who had already paid, fearful of the lack of clarity, began to disinvest, losing both money in terms of value, and the tax benefits that would have matured over time. A recent report from Equita Sim highlights a spill over 700 million. But has anyone asked who is behind the 17 billion PIRs? What personal and family stories tell those savings? These are not just numbers, but life projects that will probably never be realized.

Is this how you want to create trust? In these days the new executive seems to be returning to consider a reopening also through a closer dialogue with the trade associations, Assogestioni on all. There would be the will to reopen the PIR speech. But after what has happened who will trust more? Who will not think that perhaps the subsequent government of the country does not change the cards again? Trust has been affected, that trust which is the real currency of exchange in the relationship between financial institutions and bank-savings. On PIR it will take a great effort to win it back. But that's not enough.