With the company debt public Italian, which has now exceeded the threshold of 3.000 billion euros, questions about its management and containment methods, as well as its sustainability, are punctually renewed with each monthly announcement updating its level.
For these reasons too, it is certainly impossible to pass over in silence the publication and the presentation, which took place last week at the Faculty of Economics of Sapienza University of Rome, of the book "Public Debt Management and Regulatory Response to Financial Crises”. A book written by four hands by Maria Cannata, former Director General of the Public Debt Department of the Ministry of Economy and Finance and currently President of MTS SpA, and from Laura Long, manager of Intesa San Paolo, responsible for that Group of the PNRR and National Value Programs.
The essay, published by Giuffré in the “Diritto dei Mercati” series, directed by Domenico Siclari, Professor of Economic and Financial Market Law at the University of Rome, traces the events of the Italian public debt in recent years, representing, as Siclari himself underlines in the Preface, "a critical and integrated approach to the theme of the crisis and regulatory responses, photographing a decade of global financial life".
A critical snapshot of financial crises and public debt management
The volume is divided into two parts. The first, focused on the management of the debt and on crisis financial, which have characterized the last 16 years, underlines, in the conclusions, how "the high level of public debt remains a source of concern, because in the event of new shocks ... the risk is that of compromising its sustainability".
The second part, dedicated to theanalysis of the behavior of regulators and supervisors, critically examines the initiatives adopted to support the resilience of the banking system in the face of financial and pandemic crises. Along the path traced to improve the management of public debt, the proposals "to make the link between banks and sovereign less exacerbated" are placed and examined, with a view to reducing the risk of difficulties of the banking system linked to sovereign debt.
During the presentation of the book, the general director of Public Debt spoke, Davide Iacovoni, who, agreeing with the analysis carried out by the Cannata – Lunghi duo, in addition to the inevitable invitation to reduce the level of public debt, recalled some interesting changes that have occurred in recent years in terms of bond issues, to better respond to the needs encountered in the field, or to specific market requests, such as: the recourse to the reopening of “off the run” bonds; the recourse to the placement syndicate procedure; the revision of some mechanisms of the auction procedure itself; interventions on the duration of the bonds issued; the launch of bonds intended for the retail market and/or belonging to the green category.
Regulation, Banking Resilience and the Future of the European Banking Union
For its part, Stefano Cappiello, Director General of the Financial System Regulation and Supervision Directorate, while acknowledging the progress made in recent years in the field of regulatory, hoped for an evolution, linked to the new needs of the markets and characterised by a sign of greater cooperation between the Authorities of the various EU States, within the framework of a process of completion of the European Banking Union.
The presentation of the book was completed, finally, with the observations of Francesco Minotti, CEO of Mediocredito Centrale, who, retracing and sharing the considerations offered in this volume, wanted to remember the important role played, also and above all in the years of the Covid-19 pandemic, by Guarantee fund of its Institute and other Guarantee Funds, in support of credit activity, in particular, for the benefit of small and medium-sized enterprises; an essential and crucial hub for the development of the country, considering the morphology of the Italian industrial fabric.
