I've always liked Alessio because he's a dreamer like me. And when he's convinced of something, his enthusiasm is both unstoppable and contagious.
Back when we were kids, whenever we found something really beyond our reach, we immediately made it our objective.
I remember one afternoon when we were in the mountains, we got the idea to climb up a gigantic boulder thirty feet high. Without any equipment, we put our imaginations to work. It took us several hours to get to the top. Once we got up there, we were so thrilled you would have thought we had landed on an alien planet. Unfortunately, we had forgotten to think about how to get down. We were alone in an isolated spot: nobody was around to give us a hand.
We made it back home, all black and blue, as the sun was setting. I'll never forget how my mother and his grandma yelled at us: both were more angry than relieved to finally see us alive.
“Technically it's not impossible,” I tell Alessio. “Financially, it's so-so. Politically...they'll shoot us on sight! Here in Italy, when you have an idea that's going to weaken the powers that be, something strange immediately happens to you. It's no secret! The power belongs to the banks. The political parties and the big companies that own the banking institutions control the flow of capital, the economy and the lives of citizens. If we mess around on their territory, we'll be dead before we even get started.”
When he has an idea, however, Alessio doesn't give up easily. “Let's do it without them noticing. We'll set up the systems and the technology and sign the necessary agreements. We'll do it as if, even if word gets out, it'll look like it's no big deal. We'll keep a really low profile. Then, when everything is ready, we'll launch it on the internet. We'll put up websites all at once. We'll start with a massive campaign on Google, social networks and YouTube. We'll try to make it as viral as possible. No advertising in magazines, newspapers or TV. We'll work it so that our advertising is entirely done by people themselves. Word of mouth among millions of people should do the trick.”
“Alessio, this time we're sticking our tongues out at the big boys, you know that, right?” I say, still doubtful.
He smiles, since he knows me too well. He knows I'm already in.
“They'll do everything they can to trip us up,” I continue. “In the end, we'll probably risk an important market, like the Italian market. Ok, let's do it!”
Sorgente Bank – June 16, 2015
Office of Stefano Pellini, CEO of Sorgente Bank.
Micro-camera placed on the file cabinet facing the desk.
Giorgio Bertuzzi, Managing Director of Sorgente Bank, seen from behind: “We're losing millions.”
Stefano Pellini, CEO of Sorgente Bank: “Give me the data, Giorgio!” in a dry and annoyed tone.
G.B.: “Stefano, we've never seen anything like it. The situation has already gotten worse since I printed this out for you. And it's getting bleaker as we talk.”
S.P.: “What is this Star Bank all about?”
G.B.: “It's those guys from Starweb, the ones who've covered half the world with their biometric wireless payment systems. They broke their contract with Sabauda Bank six months ago over that mess about collecting user data, and just today they launched their own bank.”
S.P.: “So there are actually people willing to put their own money in the hands of these ragamuffins?”
G.B.: “People? It's a mass phenomenon. It's all you can read about on the internet right now. Typical sentence: I took all of my money away from the loan sharks. Enough with dirty finance. They started spreading stories on the derivatives, loss of funds and speculation. People are flooding us with messages saying they don't trust us anymore and can't wait to get away from us.”
S.P.: “Stefano, are you a little boy? Nobody believes the internet! Call the heads of the papers and the TV news, let's clarify how things really stand.”
G.B: “Giorgio, it's 2015! People buy things on the internet, make friends on the internet, trust what they read on the internet. If millions of users give you advice, you'll do what they tell you to. And nobody's listening to the experts on the TV news since they're all playing with their little tablets while they're watching the show!”
S.P.: “Okay, okay, leave me alone here, I'll take care of it.”
Giorgio Bertuzzi leaves the room.
Stefano Pellini dials the number 06 4530***.
Augusto Baldecchi, Channel 1 producer, responds.
A.B.: “Hello?”
S.P.: “Hi, it's Stefano. How's it going?”
A.B.: “Crazy. Insane. The usual.”
S.P.: “Listen, did you already pull something together on Star Bank?”
A.B.: “Something...everyone seems to be nuts about it on the internet. How's it going for you? I read that your stocks are falling in the exchange.”
S.P.: “Ah, well, it's just speculation! We haven't even lost a single Euro. Everything you read is trash.”
A.B.: “You really think so? Everyone's writing about how they've closed their old accounts and are going to Star Bank.”
S.P.: “Maybe they closed the accounts they had with the little banks in the middle of nowhere. But nobody would leave Sorgente Bank for those guys.”
A.B.: “Ah, okay.”
S.P.: “Listen, I need to tell you something so you can get prepared. But for now, please, this remains between us. You can tell everyone and their mother about it later. Listen: Star Bank is running on borrowed time!”
A.B.: “But it just got started!”
S.P.: “Sure, but do you know how it got started?”
A.B.: “Uh...I read that they prepared everything in secret for six months and then came out like a rocket.”
S.P.: “Yeah, sure, but the money?”
A.B.: “They probably don't have big problems with liquidity: they sell wireless payment systems over half of the globe.”
S.P.: “Are you kidding? Listen. We're advisors to some of their associated companies, we know their books: they're losing across the board. The classic scenario, debt buried in a few thousand companies in fiscal paradises, you know...completely unmonitored, and everything looks like it's oozing with liquidity, but they don't have a Euro in the bank.”
A.B.: “Okay, but the Bank of Italy, the tax authorities...nobody knows about this?”
S.P.: “Well they do have a few Euro, but it's not theirs.”
A.B.: “Whose is it?”
S.P.: “Laundered money.”
A.B.: “They must be crazy! So they're already dead!”
S.P.: “But you don't know who's involved! It's the Mafia. Billions of Euro...”
A.B.: “No way! It's the story of the year! Is there anyone else who knows?”
S.P.: “Nobody.”
A.B.: “We're on it!”
S.P.: “Destroy them for me, ok?”
A.B.: “No need to ask.”
S.P.: “Listen, that girl who does the evening news, is she in the game?”
A.B.: “When should I send her to you?”
S.P.: “Tomorrow. But to the apartment in Rome, tomorrow at 4pm. Have you tried her out?”
A.B.: “Of course, she's dynamite in bed!”
S.P.: “Great, we'll talk later and you can tell me what you've come up with.”
A.B. “Bye!”
The conversation ends.
Stefano Pellini dials 02 3949***.
Lucio Badalucchi, public prosecutor, responds.
L.B.: “Yes?”
S.P.: “Hi, it's Stefano.”
L.B.: “Oh, hi, Stefano. You don't need to say anything, I know you're right! You'll have to forgive me but I haven't really started the inquiry on the Morini brothers. We've been swamped with new files and it's taking all of our staff away.”
S.P.: “Don't worry. In any case nobody will be at the little haven in August. Listen, you need to check out something pretty big for me ASAP. You'll end up on the TV news all around the world. But when I say ASAP, I mean there's not a minute to waste.”
L.B.: “Fire away.”
>
S.P.: “Ok, do you know those guys from Starweb? Today they launched a dirty little bank on the internet. It's really nothing, just a way to steal the savings of a handful of losers. But the scandal that's about to come out is how much money the Mafia has given them. Before someone else gets a hold of this news, I think it'd be best for you to take care of it, right?
L.B.: “No question about it. We'll get right on it!”
S.P.: “Great, but there's a problem. I need a notice of investigation before tomorrow.”
L.B.: “No, we can't do that. Alessandro's going to the opera tonight. We can't do anything without the magistrate.”
S.P.: “You just need a signature?”
L.B.: “Right, the rest I can take care of. We can make it look like the inquiry started two months ago. We'll throw together a little documentation, I'll send something to myself by police mail. Anyway we're sure to find some Mafiosi that know them over the internet.”
S.P.: “But where do you get that kind of information?”
L.B.: “Stefano, are you still living in the stone age? Anyone can see who's following you on social networks. Someone like Obama has forty-five million followers on Twitter. The Google guys have fifteen. The kids at Starweb should have a couple million. You think we wouldn't be able to find the name of someone with ties to the Mafia among so many followers? All we need is a few messages exchanged. Then it'll be up to them, some time later in the future, to prove that they didn't mean to say what they wrote.”
S.P.: “Bravo, bravo! If you go after them for laundering dirty money, they'll disappear in the blink of an eye.”
L.B.: “Don't worry, we'll take care of them. Nobody will remember them in two months.”
S.P.: “Ok, keep me in the loop.”
L.B.: “As always! And don't forget about the favor, my wife wants to go to Bora Bora this year.”
“Enough, I can't take it anymore! These guys make me vomit. Can you believe this? Bank tycoons, TV directors, the prime minister, magistrates...they higher up you go, the more corrupt they are!” Alessio is reading the wiretaps published in the newspapers this morning.
Since Sabauda Bank disappeared six months ago, its main competitor, Sorgente Bank, thought it was omnipotent. The birth of Star Bank caught them unprepared, as we thought it would.
“I told you they'd come after us any way they could. Hit hard, hit fast. That's how these people think. We got off easy here. If Stefano Pellini wasn't being tapped, he probably would have massacred us,” I respond.
“No, he wouldn't have gotten us. We don't know anyone in the mafia!” Alessio protests.
“Look, Pellini wasn't exactly wrong: we don't need to go to lunch downtown with the Mafia every day in front of everyone else. All he needed was for it to seem like we knew them and they could cover us in mud all they wanted. Anyway, an investigation in Italy takes twenty years. Maybe in the end you could prove your innocence, but what good would it be then?”
“At least I'd be reimbursed!”
“Yes, by the government, not by the people who put you under investigation. They'd get off scot-free. So in the meantime they've already finished up their brilliant careers and started enjoying a fantastic pension.”
“All of this just makes me sick to my stomach.”
I should feel relieved that we escaped danger, but I can't relax. I feel that something is still wrong, but I can't figure out what.
“Listen, Alessio, do you ever get the feeling that things are going a little too well for us?”
I realize my words are absurd, but I feel really strange thinking about how things worked out.
“Too well? Every time we turn around there's another mess!” Alessio retorts.
“Sure, but think about it for a moment. Every time something bad happens, not only do we come out the winners, but we come out even stronger than before.”
“If anything, that just means we know how to take advantage of every opportunity,” Alessio responds.
“You're right, but are we really that good? We have some good ideas, of course! But there are a lot of people out there who are smarter than us who would come out much worse!”
“Maybe we're better at putting our ideas into practice. Look at Apple with the first iPhone. For years, they just copied everyone else's ideas. Nokia had launched smartphones with touchscreens a few years earlier, and they were horrible. But the iPhone became a must. It's not enough to have good ideas, you need to master their implementation.”
I'm not all that convinced. I still feel that something weird is going on. But I let it go: Alessio had been under a lot of stress over the past few weeks, and now that he's finally feeling more relaxed, I don't want to give him more to worry about. And not even I (fully) understand what's behind this bizarre feeling.
We track the numbers of our new creature over the next few days, completely amazed. Star Bank racked up some impressive numbers pretty quickly. The mangers we hired are working nonstop to keep up with all of the requests.
What's most surprising, though, is the climate of collaboration created with account holders. The transparency we based our bank on generated unlimited trust from our customers.
The interview – September 11, 2015
“We're back now with our guest Alberto Ferrari, CEO of Starweb. Alberto, I think we'd all like to have a fairytale career like yours: you started off with a small web agency and now you run a global IT giant, with branches in several new sectors. But things aren't going so well for everyone else in our country. The crisis doesn't seem to be ending anytime soon and many people are losing faith in the solutions proposed by politicians. We're in the thick of campaign season, only two more months until elections. What do you think of the candidates and what do you expect from them?”
It's Sunday afternoon, and I'm in the Channel 1 studios being interviewed by Maddalena Alessi. I remember thinking, when I used to watch TV, that studio stages were much bigger than what they are in reality. It's really hot, but nobody except for me seems to be suffering.
Alessi is splendid. She's wearing a very short red dress with a plunging neckline. Her copper hair is styled in long ringlets, a style that recently came back into fashion. She nonchalantly shifts in her chair, as if she was in her own living room.
I try to take my eyes off of her crossed legs: I really shouldn't leer like a creep in front of millions of viewers.
I think about Jasmine Fantini. Too bad she's not interviewing me! It's not that Alessi isn't cute, Jasmine is just from a whole other planet. But she's not working as an anchorwoman anymore, and she's almost always in the United States.
Okay, concentrate on the question: politics!
“I'd rather not talk about individual candidates. I think that our country has enormous potential. Everyone would agree on that point. But it's difficult to be successful...” I start to say.
Maddalena interrupts me: “It seems to me you've figured that out.”
“True, but we've been really fortunate. People trust us, and not everyone has that kind of luck. It's difficult to work in Italy with all of the bureaucracy and taxes holding you back. This pushes a lot of people out of the country. When somebody leaves, the country grows weaker. I believe that this vicious cycle needs to be broken.”
“That sounds like the sort of thing everyone is saying these days.”
“Yes, and in fact I think everyone can clearly see what needs to happen. But whoever gets elected will probably start paying more attention to their own interests than the public's interest. And then people always try to cover up what they're really doing, which of course the public doesn't like.”
“So what would you do?”
“Well, for example, when we decided to create Star Bank, we based it on a simple idea: complete transparency. Today anyone can go online and download any type of data on any sector of our business. Sure, this might make it easier for our competitors to copy us, but our customers like it. They know exactly what's working and what could be done better. Most
of all, they know what we're doing with their money.”
“And do you think this could be applied on the national scale?”
“Of course! We all know that politicians use our money in really shady ways. Look at what we've done with Star Bank: you can make a sort of analogy with how the government should work. Whoever logs in online should be able to understand in a clear and unambiguous way what topics are being discussed, where the public money is going and why. Then voters would stop allowing the nation's budget to get eaten up by a thousand side interests. Politicians would be required to release billions of Euro in resources that were previously used the wrong way.”
“You don't think your point of view is a little too idealistic?”
Her chestnut eyes shine, reflecting the studio lights. Her words flow freely, breezily. I start doubting that my rant was very convincing. Actually I've never really been much into politics. Maddalena is probably right: it's not that easy to implement the ideas I was going on about once you get mixed up in the complex logic of politics.
“You're probably right, Maddalena, but that's at least what I would try to do.”
“I'd recommend that you don't say it too loud, unless you want to find your Twitter flooded with the hashtag #AlbertoForPresident.”
“Don't worry, Maddalena, I've already had enough excitement with a couple banks this year. I'd say that's enough for now.”
“Thank you, Alberto, for taking the time to visit with us. We're happy to have role models like you out there to inspire young people who want to create successful businesses.”
“Thanks for having me.”
“Now for the latest sports news, let's go to the soccer fields and see how the Sunday games are going...”
While Maddalena introduces the sports news, I get up and head towards the exit. Away from the video cameras, I stop to watch the dancers get ready to go on stage after the sports news. As the segment airs, I lock eyes again with Maddalena.