Roma, 02 Dicembre 1998
PRECISAZIONE SU INTERPRETAZIONE COMUNICATO BANCA D'ITALIA SUI TITOLI DI STATO
A misinterpretation of a press release issued by Banca d'Italia on November 27"', has led an intemational information provider to update its Italian Govemment bond pages adding a call option feature with strike on December to Italian Govemment bonds. The Treasury wishes to give correct information on the following:
1) Italian Govermnent bonds (BTPs and CCTS) are issued as straight bonds, therefore they embed no call or put option. Hence no cali option has been exercised or is due to be exercised on Italian Goveminent bonds;
2) the reimbursement mentioned on the press release aims at favoring the conversion to euro of some very small odd positions arisìng from the past issuance of very small lots of Govemment bonds to some investors who wished to have physical availability of the bonds. They do not belong to the common institutional and retail investor, both domestic and foreign;
3) the amounts relating to each of these positions are in the range of US$ 60 to US$ 600;
4) the total amount of bonds affected by such operation is no greater than US$ 4.8 million or 0.00089% of total outstanding BTPS.
Therefore, no institutional foreign investor is impacted by the above described operation nor any call option exists on Italian BTPs and CCTS.