1995-03-29
The Italian Minister of the Treasury, acting as President of the Interministerial Committee for Credit and Savings (CICR), issued an urgent decree regulating the collection of savings from employees and members of cooperative entities. The decree permits capital companies and cooperatives to collect savings from employees under strict statutory and financial limits, while prohibiting the use of demand instruments or payment-related tools. It also establishes transitional rules for public administration cooperatives to align their statutes by December 1995 and sets a compliance deadline of December 1997 for existing operations.
SECRETARIAT OF THE INTERMINISTERIAL COMMITTEE FOR CREDIT AND SAVINGS MOD. 211 M.T. 111
HAVING REGARD to Article 11, paragraph 1, of Legislative Decree No. 385 of 1 September 1993, which defines "savings collection" as the activity of acquiring funds with an obligation to repay;
HAVING REGARD to paragraph 2 of the same article, which prohibits entities other than banks from collecting savings from the public;
HAVING REGARD to paragraph 3 of the aforementioned article, which grants the CICR the power to establish limits and criteria, including with regard to the activity and legal form of entities, under which certain forms of acquiring funds with an obligation to repay, including those conducted with members and employees, do not constitute savings collection from the public;
HAVING REGARD to paragraph 1 of Article 106 of the same decree, according to which the exercise towards the public of activities such as, inter alia, the granting of financing in any form is reserved to financial intermediaries registered in a special list kept by the Minister of the Treasury, who relies on the UIC;
HAVING REGARD to paragraph 4 of the same article, which clarifies that consumer credit is considered to be exercised towards the public even when limited to the scope of members;
HAVING REGARD to Articles 130 and 131 of the aforementioned Legislative Decree, which subject to criminal penalty the activity of collecting savings from the public carried out in violation of Article 11 cited above;
HAVING REGARD to the resolution of the Interministerial Committee for Credit and Savings of 3 March 1994, which, inter alia, regulated the collection of savings from members, deferring to a subsequent resolution of its own the definition of limits and criteria by which the collection of savings from employees may be carried out;
DEEMING it urgent to act, pursuant to Article 3, paragraph 2 of Legislative Decree 385/1993;
ON PROPOSAL formulated by the Bank of Italy;
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the public administration from which the members depend approves the statutes of the entity or cooperative society and appoints at least one of its representatives to the board of directors and the statutory audit board of the said society;
at least one-fifth of the annual net profits is allocated to the increase of equity or equivalent funds.
For the purposes of this decree, "public administration" refers exclusively to the central administrations of the State, other territorial entities, as well as instrumental entities thereof.
The amendment of the statutes to the aforementioned provisions must take place by 31 December 1995 and, by the same date, notice must be given to the UIC, sending a copy of the statutes and the last available financial statement.
Collection among public servants may in any case not take place with "on-demand" instruments or instruments linked to the issuance or management of payment means.
This decree, which will be published in the Official Gazette of the Italian Republic, enters into force fifteen days after the date of publication.
Companies that, on the date of entry into force of this decree, have in place savings collection operations from employees as referred to in the previous Article 1, shall comply with the provisions contained in this decree by 31 December 1997.
The Bank of Italy issues implementing instructions on the matters regulated by this decree.
The C.I.C.R. reserves the right to intervene again on the regulation of the collection of savings from members of entities and cooperatives established among employees of the same public administration, taking into account the information that the Bank of Italy - after consulting the UIC - will provide on the matter by 31 December 1996.
Rome, 29 MAR. 1995