- mocked it for one obvious reason - at only €5 billion it was far too small to make an impact, as we explained in "Size Matters: Analysts Mock Italy's Tiny "Atlas" Bailout Fund Meant To Support €360BN In Bad Debt."

In late June, following the Brexit vote when the Italian bank undercapitalization and the nation's massive bad debt problem was once again exposed, it became all too obvious just how undercapitalized Italy truly is when in one attempt after another, Italy's Prime Minister Matteo Renzi begged Europe to allow him to implement a €50 billion bailout (not a bail-in) of Italy's banks contrary to the new BRRD regulations.

While so far Renzi had been repeatedly shut down by either Merkel, or Schauble, or Dijselbloem (even as both Deutsche Bank and the ECB have shown an eagerness to rescue Italy), overnight a white knight may have emerged for Italy, because as the Telegraph revealed that JPMorgan has been appointed by the Italian government to work on plans to set up a bank to buy troubled loans from the country's lenders at approximately 20% of face value.