Chapter 74: Counterattack (2)

Contini's cold tone sounded: "I am very sorry for the market speculation about the group's credit problems, but I can understand the motivations and objective reasons behind it. Compared with the United States and the United Kingdom, the Italian banking industry has actually started. Very early, how early? I studied history and found that the construction of the modern banking industry began during the European Renaissance, which was many years ahead of the world. However, the problems were exactly the same as before: many, small, fragmented, and weak. Chaos and poor conditions are caused by the fact that Italy has long been dominated by small states and has not formed a unified market. The lira exchange rate has always been unstable. Driven by multiple factors, the banking industry is always worried about this or that credit issue. "

This sentence makes people a little confused. Did Mr. President express his understanding and find an academic reason for the banking industry's forced marriage?

Soon they realized that they were wrong. The president was still the same president, and a fierce counterattack came unexpectedly.

“This status quo does not match Italy’s contemporary mission of achieving great national rejuvenation, Italy’s ambition to build a new Roman Empire, and the United Group’s development goals determined to become bigger and stronger. The Group will continue We will work to change this situation:

"First, for banks that are small in size and have weak risk resistance capabilities, including the City Bank of Rome, the Regional Bank of Milan, the City Bank of Venice, the Second National Bank of Italy, and the Commercial Bank of Genoa..." Contini reported a long list List, these are the banks that took the lead in collecting loans or refusing to re-lend. "Our group understands their difficulties and has decided to stop dealing with the above-mentioned banks from today. If any supplier opens an account in the above-mentioned bank, please immediately adjust the main sponsoring bank." , otherwise the funds cannot be guaranteed to be transferred in time, and we must consider the safety of customer funds..."

The reporters were in an uproar.

“Second, in view of the poor credit system and insufficient risk resistance of these banks, the Group, in order to protect the interests of employees, requires all employees and their families to withdraw their deposits in the above banks immediately to preserve the principal. If there is any interest loss, the Group will It must be fully borne and completed within 10 days, and no subsidy will be given if it is overdue;

Third, it is recommended that the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank inspect the above-mentioned banks to check whether their capital is sufficient, whether there are difficulties in normal operations, and whether they need to suspend business for rectification to avoid the impact of the Italian financial crisis;

Fourth, for banks that raise lending rates due to monetary tightening..."

Contini reported a list of names again, "The group has decided to repay it early. The comprehensive interest rate on the loans we obtained in the United States is only 5%, while interest rates in Italy generally exceed 7% and are constantly trending upward. This is an abnormal market. A company with the strength of United Group should have received more favorable treatment, but the result turned out to be like this. This shows how difficult it is for other Italian small and medium-sized enterprises to survive. We will not compete with small and medium-sized enterprises for financing channels and give them all. , the group will issue corporate bonds at the appropriate time and arrange for its subsidiaries to be listed in New York to attract more direct financing. "

As soon as this war bomb was dropped, the whole place was shaken. Everyone knew that it was the United Group and these banks that "send umbrellas in sunny days and withdraw umbrellas in rainy days". Didn't you say that credit funds are tight and you want to withdraw them? United Group recognizes your reasons, but conversely, it also believes that your ability to resist risks is poor, so employees, family members and partners should not open accounts anymore. In other words, United Group has issued a run order!

With this background, now that the United Group is calling for a run, the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank will just ignore it, otherwise the Ministry of Finance will not be able to withstand Contini's surge.

After announcing these items, he did not wait for reporters to ask questions and said to himself: "Everyone, I'm sorry, I just came back from the United States and have just recovered from my illness. The doctor told me that I need to continue to pay attention to rest. I can't answer any more questions at today's press conference. Problem."

"This press conference is over. All reporters please pay attention to the next announcement from our group." The spokesperson ignored the commotion of the reporters and asked Antonio to answer a few questions hastily before announcing the end.

The next day, all newspapers published the full text of United Group's statement, and even had a sensational headline: United Group declared war on some banks!

It is easy to understand whether to declare war or not. When the suppliers who got the check and cashed it completely received the payment, they immediately confirmed: United Group is still the same United Group, domineering, rich and willful! In this case, if you close your bank account without being allowed to use it, there is no guarantee that you will receive the transfer, but is it not a warning to terminate the business relationship? If you don't comply, I'm afraid the United Group won't be able to do business in the future. Between business and accounts, everyone can recognize the situation clearly.

While the company continued to close accounts, United Group employees also went to several key banks to queue up to withdraw money, and told everyone they met that these banks were at risk of bankruptcy. The news spread quickly to citizens who did not know the truth. Everyone was noisy and queued up to withdraw money.

When the bankers got the news, they knew something was wrong. That afternoon, people kept calling to plead for mercy. But Zakaria and Leo's answers were the same: The president was not feeling well and had gone to the beach villa to recuperate. What are you waiting for? Let’s wait until he recovers.

Calling Antonio worked, and Antonio was very easy to talk to. Do you want to retract your statement? Can! The amount recovered will be paid out twice as much at an interest rate of 4.8% for a period of 5 years. Otherwise, you will not be able to accommodate the young master’s temper. You all know that the socialist party who dared to do this in the past has died on the streets.

4.8% interest rate? This is simply impossible! Why the interest rate in Italy is higher than that in the United States is not because Italy is really short of money, but because the Italian monetary system is unstable and the overall depreciation is mostly, so it needs to raise the loan interest rate to hedge risks. Now the interest rate is 4.8%, and it is required to be doubled for five years. These banks are basically serving the United Group for free, which is even more impossible.

So the bankers looked for a way out, some went out to find familiar government officials, some went to Fiat, who had incited them to cause trouble, and some planned to go to friendly banks to lend money to tide over the difficulties, which generally meant carrying it out. But they never expected that while they were looking for connections, the finance minister and the central bank governor were being called into the office by Mussolini to lecture:

"These corrupt banks are so lawless. The United Group dares to slap those loans. Many of them are guaranteed by government credit. In their eyes, government credit is so worthless? If you slap Calais in the face now, will it come in two days?" "Slap me in the face?" Mussolini said angrily, "The Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank are not allowed to control the banks named by the United Group! At the same time, we must warn other commercial banks not to lend funds to them!"

"But these banks will fail... and it will cause a bigger shock wave, which will be detrimental to the government."

"It won't go bankrupt!" Mussolini waved his hand impatiently. "At the appropriate time, the United Group will purchase them to form a United Bank! The interests of depositors can be guaranteed. Calais and I are angry, and we will cooperate in the new union 25% of the shares in the bank are reserved for the government.”

"But we don't have the money to invest in it."

"No money?" Mussolini said with a smile, "You don't have to worry about it. The United Group is very considerate of the government. If you sell some land, some mines, some scrap steel for the army and navy, and some concessions, the money will come out. We don't have to actually pay for it." lira."

"Scrap steel from the army and navy?" The finance minister and the central bank governor had a dark look on their faces. Is there such a title?

For Mussolini, this was normal. The last time the navy scrap steel was sold, it was very successful: the seller was satisfied, the middleman was satisfied, and the buyer was also satisfied. A certain commander from the Far East (see the content of the prestige public account "Yueying Wutong" for details) used it very well. After the Naples arrived in August For the first time, I took a 10,000-ton ironclad ship to command an attack. When two 305mm and 12 203mm naval guns fired salvos, those small southern sampans did not dare to compete with them. The southern army's position was in a state of depression, and the morale of the northern army's ground troops rose sharply. Rushing into the prison in one go... (Uh, I can't write more)

Then we are ready to dump the army's scrap steel. The outdated Renault F17 tanks, the early 3000 tanks copied by Fiat, the Austro-Hungarian and German miscellaneous artillery captured in World War I, armored vehicles, a mess of rifles, and machine guns can all be included in this group. , of course Contini will not hand over these items such as g98, mp-18, and Miss France 75. Wouldn’t it be nice to keep them for volunteer military use?

With Mussolini's word of mouth, the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank knew what was going on. They were even prepared to warn other banking systems that were ready to intercede or provide help. Are you feeling dizzy? Don’t you see who owns the world now? Want to fight against the United Group? Isn’t the Socialist Party’s lesson profound enough? Believe it or not, the black-shirted army will let you fly to the sky on a plane tonight? Besides, little Ciano has obtained so much money from the United States all at once, and he is not afraid of anything soft or hard. What kind of illusion does the banking community have that they can challenge United Group?

After seeing the two of them off, Mussolini walked around the office contentedly, then opened the safe and touched the small cowhide suitcase that Contini had brought back to him from New York. "Specialties". After the press conference at noon yesterday, Contini went to report to Mussolini, and then respectfully presented the leader with 20 10-ounce New York standard gold bars (1 troy ounce) with a purity of 99.9999%. =31.1 grams), as well as two sets of ladies’ diamond jewelry, including necklaces, earrings, and rings. They are worth a lot at first glance, and they clearly told Mussolini that Rachel is here (Mussolini’s real wife) , Ada's mother) had already sent an identical set in the name of Mussolini, and Ada took it with her.

Who will give the remaining 2 sets to? Mussolini smiled heartily at that time, patted Contini on the shoulder, said that the young man had a future and was considerate enough (he also knew about the seaside villa and flower farm), and said that Ada was very satisfied and satisfied after she came back. Happy, he owes Contini a favor.