The Bank of Italy was not given any warnings ahead of the near-collapse of food firm Parmalat in a multi-billion-euros accounting scandal, sources told newspapers on Sunday, rebutting an economy ministry attack.
"The Bank of Italy was never sent any signs about Parmalat," newspapers quoted a Bank of Italy source saying, the highest profile yet response from the bank and its governor Antonio Fazio to criticism by Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti.
"Open war between the Bank of Italy and the Treasury," Corriere della Sera declared in its front-page article.
Central bank sources said concerns over Parmalat were not mentioned at an interministerial meeting last July, which Tremonti had said discussed the issue.
They added that any credible reports would have had to be sent to stock market regulator Consob.
The sudden revelation in December of Parmalat's accounting shortfall, which prosecutors say could top 10 billion euros, has raised questions about Italy's regulators, as well as the role played by Italian and international banks and auditors.
In parliament last Thursday, Tremonti called for broad regulatory reforms that would include shifting some of the Bank of Italy's powers over bank mergers and financial instruments to the anti-trust authority and to Consob.
He also took a swipe at long-time rival Fazio, fuelling rumours that Fazio could lose his grip on the banking sector.
"The Bank of Italy perhaps ought to have noticed in the course of the years and in its inspections that something was at least anomalous," Tremonti said.
The row between the two Italian institutions responsible for guiding the economy has threatened to overshadow the probe into more than a decade of suspected fraud and false accounting at Parmalat that has hit thousands of small investors. Sources at the Economy Ministry hit back at the Bank of Italy in their own comments to newspapers on Sunday.
"In a normal world, it's the regulator who warns the government, not the other way around," one of the sources said.
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