MILAN. Attention is increasingly focused on the Eurovita case. The insurance company specializing in the life branch ended up in extraordinary administration. Ivass, the Authority that supervises insurance, has appointed Alessandro Santoliquido as extraordinary commissioner and the policies are frozen until June: a term that suggests a solution is upon us.
According to rumors, a general agreement has been decided for a stew of the company with the aim of securing the investments of savers. However, times are short because the division operation that would take place between Intesa Vita, Generali, Poste, Unipol and Allianz of a package of premiums worth over one billion euros is very complex. In any case, a systemic solution was chosen to revive the company, which had gotten into trouble following the rate hike by the ECB. However, difficulties lurk in this systemic mechanism. The freeze on redemptions imposed by IVASS to avoid an uncontrolled outflow of capital that could have jeopardized the company and the sector’s reputation will end on 30 June (the suspension had already been ordered in February but the deadline was later extended). Given the tight deadlines, it will not be easy to carry out the division operations and bring together the different branches under different banners. The times required could be longer and there could be a bridging solution or a new extension on the way, which this time, however, could be for a few days, 30 or 60, the strictly necessary to reach the final word.
The scheme under study provides for the division of Eurovita into five business branches, all of the same size, which would then be taken over by the big names. In this way, the company as well as the brand would disappear, while policy subscribers would find themselves holding a contract with Generali or with Unipol, Allianz, Poste or Intesa, with all the relative guarantees. The sector would take on the insurance risk and this by putting on the plate a total value estimated at 500 million.
«Eurovita is a hiccup that must make everyone think, and everyone must ensure that it remains unique – says Giuseppe D’Orta, an independent financial consultant -. In any case, compulsory administrative liquidation, with consequent economic losses and certainly not short payment times, was not convenient for anyone”. For the expert, the overall commitment of those who intervene is not high and is nothing compared to what would have happened, on the economic side but also and above all of the reputation of the entire system.