Italy banks hit back over virus criticism

Italian banks have traded barbs with the government after Prime Minister Guiseppe Conte suggested they were not doing enough to help firms struggling with the effects of the coronavirus lockdown.

Conte told parliament on Thursday banks "must do more", but an industry body said its members were already making "colossal" efforts. "We are fighting a fire and I am continuing to carry water to put it out," Antonio Patuelli of the Association of Italian Banks (ABI) told La Stampa newspaper.

The government has introduced a system of state guarantees to back loans to firms that are designed to stave off insolvencies. The country is trying to allow businesses to reopen following weeks of

strict lockdown, but many are complaining that financial help has been slow to materialise. Almost one-third of roughly one million establishments that can reopen said they would not, according to a survey published on Saturday by Italy's small and medium-sized business association, Confesercenti.

Conte has urged aid procedures be speeded up for state-backed loans up to 25,000 euros ($27,000), saying "in most cases" there appeared to be hold-ups. ABI, however, said banks had passed on to the state guarantee fund 329,000 loan requests totalling 15 billion euros in the past month.

The association said also 80 percent of requests for delays in paying off debts had been accepted and just 1 percent rejected. ABI vice-president Gianfranco Torriero said the association was having to process 50,000 such requests per day compared with 400 during the 2008 financial crisis.