La retorica degli aiuti di Stato e l’eccezionalismo delle banche pubbliche. Riflessioni a margine del salvataggio di Nord Lb

The Nord Lb rescue plan provides for the recapitalization of the institution by the main public shareholders (the two Land Niedersachsen and Sachsen Anhalt) and the intervention of the savings banks through the voluntary guarantee fund DSGV. According to the EU Commission, the solution adopted would not distort competition since the envisaged measures are implemented at market conditions. Starting from the specificity of the case in question, this work intends, firstly, to clarify whether it would not have been more correct to apply the state aid discipline to the public rescue plan and in particular to the intervention of the DSGV; secondly, check the limits of the private investor test in the case of bank bail-outs; and, lastly, to ascertain whether there is a willingness on the part of the Commission to codify a double regime according to which private banks would be subject to stringent constraints and to the application of burden sharing while public ones would instead have full freedom of maneuver to draw on support state. The investigation ends with a comparison with the Italian events and, in particular, with the examination of the public rescue of the Popolare di Bari which has certain similarities with the restructuring of the German bank.