Prospectus - Notowania

Bank supervision and capital adequacy requirements
Pursuant to Articles 51 et seq. of the TUB, every bank is subject to the supervision of
the Bank of Italy.
Vis-à-vis each banking party, the Bank of Italy carried out informative, regulatory and
inspection supervisory activities; in particular, with regard to the performance of
informative supervision, Article 56 of the TUB lays down that the amendments to the
Articles of Association of the banks cannot be recorded in the companies’ register if a
provision of the Bank of Italy is not established which ascertains that said changes do
not contrast with a sound and prudent management of the bank.
Furthermore, with regard to all the banks, the Bank of Italy carries out – as per Article
53 of the TUB - regulatory supervisory activities, issuing, in compliance with the
resolutions of the CICR, general provisions concerning: the capital adequacy, the
containment of the risk in its various forms, the equity investments which can be held
and the administrative and accounting organization and internal controls.
The capital adequacy of the banks is subject to specific discipline by the Bank of Italy
which acknowledges, in particular, the decisions adopted by the Basel Committee in
the New Basel Agreement on Capital.
In detail, in January 2001 the Basel Committee published the proposals for the review
of the international standards existing with regard to the capital adequacy of banks
(Basel II). They were finally approved and adopted under the Directives 2006/48/EC
and 2006/49/EC and came into force on January 1, 2007.
The Italian State acknowledged the afore-mentioned directives by means of Italian
Decree Law No. 297 dated 27 December 2006, subsequently converted into Italian
Law No. 15 dated February 23, 2007.
In accordance with this law, the general provisions issued by the Bank of Italy
concerning capital adequacy must foresee that the banks are able to use: (i) the
appraisals of the credit risk issued by external companies or bodies; in this connection,
the provisions discipline the requirements, also of a technical and independence
nature, which the parties must possess and the related appraisal methods; (ii) internal
risk gauging systems for determining the capital requirements, subject to the
authorization of the Bank of Italy.
Implementing said law, the Bank of Italy issued Circular No. 263 dated December 27,
2006.
Share-based investments made by banks
The banks are permitted to make investments in both finance companies and industrial
companies, in observance of the norms and the limits envisaged in the Bank of Italy’s
Supervisory Instructions when exercising regulatory supervision functions.
As a rule, the equity investments undertaken by a bank cannot exceed, in their
entirety, the available margin for investments in equity investments and in properties
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