By: GZ on Venerdì 27 Luglio 2007 16:16
correggo quello che ho detto ieri, sembra che siano dei ladri nel senso che Italease e Unicredito hanno venduto a migliaia di piccoli industriali e aziende complessi "swap" sui tassi di interesse di cui ovviamente il cliente non capiva niente e che davano commissioni superiori al 5% per le banche
basati su formule "knock-out" per cui glielo vendi dicendo che così paghera solo il 4% anche se i tassi si muovono, ma nel contratto è scritto in piccolo che se il tasso tocca un certo livello per X giorni scatta invece una perdita calcolata in base a formule strane e voilà... i tassi sono saliti e ci sono perdite del -80%, ma il bello è che puoi leggere tutti gli articoli sulla stampa (vai su Google e fai una ricerca) e nessuno spiega come @#&%$%£"^?* abbiano fatto con un rialzo modesto dei tassi in euro dal 2.5% al 4% a far perdere dei -80% su degli swap sui tassi.
l'unico reportage critico che punta il dito alle responsabilità delle banche italiane nel creare perdite a migliaia di clienti Italease è di ..... Bloomberg da NY in inglese... ovvio che essendoci di mezzo Unicredito & company i giornali italiani che sono tutti legati alle banche glissano
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Italian Shopkeepers Blame Bankers for Losses on Derivatives
By John Glover and Sonia Sirletti
July 27 (Bloomberg) -- Piera Levo and her husband, who run a 15-employee plumbing supply company in northeastern Italy, bought ``insurance'' against interest rate increases from UniCredit SpA in 2000.
Six years later, they paid 85,000 euros ($117,000) to extricate themselves from a derivative known as an interest-rate swap that is normally sold to large companies and fund managers. Derivatives are contracts whose value is based on that of another security, index or commodity, or linked to events such as changes in interest rates.
``I had no idea what I was getting into,'' Levo said. ``I don't even play slot machines. I would never sit down to play blackjack against Alessandro Profumo,'' chief executive officer of UniCredit, Italy's biggest lender.
Italian banks, including UniCredit and Banca Italease SpA, have sold swaps to as many as 100,000 small businesses, according to lawyers and industry groups. Concern about the contracts intensified last month, when Milan-based Italease said about 2,200 clients may lose 600 million euros on derivatives. Italy's central bank this week barred Italease from selling its most- profitable derivatives and ordered directors to resign.
The Bank of Italy estimates that non-financial companies had 3 billion euros of liabilities on derivatives at the end of 2006.
Banks sold swaps to clients as insurance against rising rates. They also made lots of money. Commissions from sales of derivatives represented 48 percent of operating revenue at Italease in the fourth quarter, according to John Raymond, an analyst at CreditSights Inc. in London.
`Very Lucrative'
``These products are very lucrative,'' said Jacopo Ceccatelli, a former swaps trader who's now a consultant to two Italease clients who lost money on derivatives. ``If a bank's sales force has to make their numbers, then this is a way of doing it.''
Italian courts have upheld the contracts because buyers signed forms declaring they were ``qualified investors.'' Qualified investors are either institutions such as banks, or people or companies that demonstrate they understand the transactions, according to Italy's stock market regulator.
Osvaldo Pettene, a Verona-based lawyer, is representing a marble miner, an industrial design studio and a furniture maker in lawsuits against the banks. He says lenders didn't fully explain the contracts.
```Need a loan? Then just sign here,' was the banks' approach,'' Pettene said.
`Adequately Informed'
Clients were ``adequately informed,'' and documentation was ``complete in both form and substance,'' said Italease spokesman Tomaso Davico.
``All of the transactions, regardless of the level of their complexity, are agreed with the clients,'' he said. UniCredit spokeswoman Francesca Palermo declined to comment.
Levo said she plans to sue Milan-based UniCredit for the return of her 85,000-euro payment plus unspecified damages.
Italease leases everything from digging machinery to cars and real estate. The company's shares rose sixfold from its initial public offering in June 2005 to Feb. 9, 2007, as it increased leasing, and moved into mortgages and factoring. They have since plunged 72 percent.
Former Italease CEO Massimo Faenza resigned June 4 as client losses mounted. Massimo Sarandrea, the former head of derivatives, has also left.
Italease, controlled by investors led by Banca Popolare di Verona e Novara Scrl, sells derivatives from outside suppliers to clients with mortgages or leasing contracts. It has to cover losses if clients can't pay. The Bank of Italy estimates Italease will lose 500 million euros on derivatives contracts opened with clients, Italease said July 25.
Ratings Cut
In the past two months, Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings cut Italease's credit rating to the lowest investment grade as potential losses soared.
In a basic swaps contract, one borrower exchanges the interest payments on its floating-rate debt for the fixed-rate payments of the second. This helps the first borrower protect against rate increases, while the other profits if rates decline.
When rates fell after the Internet bubble burst and the Sept. 11 attacks slowed the global economy, many of the contracts became money losers for clients. From October 1999 to April 2001, the European Central Bank increased its benchmark rate to 4.75 percent from 2.5 percent. Over the next 14 months, the rate dropped to 2 percent, where it remained until December 2005.
Italease's sales pitch for the derivatives centered on the importance of insuring against changing rates, according to the text of a November 2006 presentation to potential buyers.
Two Options
The document discusses two alternatives. First, a basic swap in which Italease pays the three-month euro interbank offered rate, a benchmark money-market rate, and the client pays a fixed 3.96 percent.
The bank also proposes a more complex structure based on the number of days an interest rate is lower than a stated barrier. Italease has an option to close the trade unilaterally and free of cost after the first year, a possibility denied to the client.
The potential downside for the client is ``far greater'' than any possible gain, Ceccatelli said.
``Swaps have been sold the wrong way, they're unfair and unbalanced in favor of the bank,'' said Emanuele Argento, a lawyer who has represented plaintiffs against other banks. ``The people these were sold to don't even know what a swap is.''