(ANSA) - Rome, November 21 - More than 15 million euros have
been reimbursed to bondholders of failed Italian banks for
around 80% of their holdings, Interbank Fund (FITD) deputy
director general Salvatore Paterna told ANSA on Monday.
He said 6,200 cases were currently being processed with about
1,000 more awaiting processing.
"Up to now, 96.9% of the reimbursements are for balances of
less than 50,000 euros each, with 85% of those under 20,000
euros," he said, adding that 63.3% of reimbursements have been
for balances of less than 10,000 euros.
Paterna said that the initial estimate of 6,500 reimbursement
claims has been revised upwards to "more than double, perhaps
about 12,000", if all of the investors entitled make a claim.
He said the reimbursements, which began in September, have
been proceeding at a weekly pace, but could now become bi-weekly
or even more frequent, in order to satisfy the 60-day
reimbursement deadline on a large wave of claims submitted at
the end of September.
The overall total of reimbursements is expected to
significantly surpass 20 million euros within the next seven
days, he said.
For investors with larger balances whose reimbursement
deadline is January 3, the fund is awaiting the result of an
arbitration which may not arrive within that deadline.
"If the (arbitration results) should be delayed and the
deadline for the 80% reimbursement remains January 3, I can
imagine that in the final days of December those (investors)
will spill over into the lump sum proceedings," he said.
Reimbursements hit 15 mn for failed bank bondholders
Interbank Fund says more than 6,200 applications being processed