Italy’s market watchdog fines Cattolica, former execs in governance controversy

MILAN (Reuters) – Italy’s market watchdog Consob has fined Cattolica Assicurazioni and eight of the insurer’s former executives and auditors a total of 620,000 euros ($647,714) for misleading the market about its governance structure.

Consob said in a statement that it had fined Cattolica 220,000 euros and five ex-board members, including former chairman Paolo Bedoni, 50,000 euros each for breaching transparency obligations to the market.

Both Cattolica and Bedoni were not immediately available for comment.

Investigations, which had started in 2020, found that the company’s corporate governance structure differed from the scheme formally approved by the board and presented to the market with reference to 2019 and 2020 financial years.

Consob said that three former Cattolica auditors were also fined 50,000 euros each as they failed to fulfil their supervisory duties.

Italy’s top insurer Generali rescued smaller rival Cattolica in 2020 with a 300 million euro investment after supervisors told the Verona-based insurer to bolster its finances.

Last year, Generali launched a successful takeover bid to gain control of Cattolica and recently raised its stake in the company to 91.5%.

($1 = 0.9572 euros)

(Reporting by Federico Maccioni and Andrea Mandala, editing by Keith Weir)