Italy minister says central bank could have supervised banks better

[December 18, 2017]  ROME (Reuters) - The Bank of Italy could have done a better job in supervising the country's banking sector while numerous lenders collapsed and thousands of savers lost their money, Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan said on Monday.

Italy's Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan takes part in a European Union finance ministers' meeting in Brussels, Belgium November 7, 2017. REUTERS/Yves Herman

Testifying before parliament, Padoan said despite the oversight failings, the reappointment in October of Bank of Italy Governor Ignazio Visco for a second term in office was aimed at providing stability to financial markets. "We wanted to give a signal of stability while acknowledging that in specific cases supervision could perhaps have been done better," Visco told a special commission set up to look into the bank collapses. (Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte, writing by Gavin Jones) [© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.] Copyright 2017 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.