ZCZC
BCN-15
ITALY-MARKET-WATCHDOG-RESIGN
Italy’s markets watchdog chief quits under pressure: report
ROME, Sept 14, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The head of Italy’s financial markets
watchdog Consob resigned Thursday after coming under pressure from the
populist government, the business daily Il Sole 24 Ore reported.
Consob chairman Mario Nava, who had only been in the job since April,
tendered his resignation at an emergency board meeting, announcing he would
return to Brussels.
The Milan-born Nava took on the Consob post after taking time off from his
position as a director with the European Commission in charge of financial
system surveillance.
Parliamentarians from Italy’s anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S)
suspect that Nava, thanks to his status with the EU Commission, enjoys
“substantial immunity” from the Italian courts, which in their view was
incompatible with his responsibilities within Consob.
A statement on Wednesday signed by the heads of parliamentary groups of
the two parties in government, the M5S and the far-right League party, called
on Nava to resign as a “gesture of institutional sensibility”.
BSS/AFP/HR/0955