Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy's second-large bank after UniCredit, said earlier this week that it would be interested in buying the healthy parts of Veneto Banca and Banca Popolare di Vicenza. The bad loans and other troubled assets will be put into a separate "bad bank" and probably sold at a deep discount. By announcing the failure of the banks on a Friday evening, the European Central Bank gave financial markets the weekend to absorb the news, in hopes that the news would not cause turmoil. Financial markets reacted calmly to the collapse of Banco Popular earlier in June, a sign that the eurozone's system for troubled banks was working. In Italy, protecting small investors in troubled banks has been a sensitive political issue, with elections expected by next spring.