Italy's Banks Are In a Slow-Motion Crisis

MILAN â?? Victor Massiah has grown weary of talk that the Italian banking system is so threadbare and stuffed with terrible loans that it threatens Europe with another financial crisis.

The mansion that serves as local headquarters for the bank he runs, UBI Banca, one of Italyâ??s largest lenders, does not feel like a place on the verge of running out of money. An inlaid marble fireplace sits in a conference room beneath wooden beams worthy of a castle. A statue of the Greek goddess Athena stands triumphantly over a staircase.