IMF says Italian banks must do better on governance

(ANSA) - New York, September 26 - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says Italian banks have made progress on improving corporate governance while stressing that they still have a lot of work to do.
    In a recent report, the IMF added that it is necessary to beef up Italian regulations concerning big local co-operative banks as well as lenders controlled by foundations, because these "tend to have lower levels of capital and weaker activities with the respect to the system average". The fund said it is necessary to reinforce vigilance of foundations when these are also bank stakeholders as "foundations don't have shareholders and are subject to political influence".
    It pointed out that foundations are the majority stakeholders of 23% of Italian landers.