Unipol/BNL: Unipulled

The ever-widening Italian banking scandal has claimed its latest victim. And rightly so. Unipol’s E8.4bn bid for BNL has been blocked by the Bank of Italy on the grounds that the insurer didn’t have adequate capital. The protectionist policies of the old regime at the Bank of Italy have now come full circle. Unipol was only able to make such a fanciful bid because Antonio Fazio, the disgraced former governor, was desperate to stop foreigners buying Italian banks. The way is now open for Spain’s...