Any move by Italy’s insurgent government to issue parallel liquidity will set off a red alert in financial markets and call into question the survival of Europe’s monetary union, Standard & Poor’s has warned.

The rating agency said the ‘minibot’ plan being prepared by anti-euro Lega nationalists and the alt-Left Five Star Movement would create a rival payment structure based on ‘IOU’ notes. This subverts the monetary control of the European Central Bank and risks a disastrous chain-reaction.

“People need to be very careful. It is equivalent to introducing a quasi-second currency,” said Jean-Michel Six, S&P’s European strategist.

“If we go down that route, it would be a signal to markets that some circles in the coalition were considering exit from the eurozone,” he said, speaking at a forum of the Institute of International Finance.

Alexander Privitera, European strategist for Commerzbank, said the currency plan reveals the ‘political culture’ of the leaders now taking charge of a systemic EU state.

“It doesn’t take much to understand that this is a direct threat to the eurozone. Certain people in the coalition have this at the back of their minds, and it must be taken seriously,” he said.