"Formal autonomy and the attribution of powers to the Bank of Italy are important, but the fundamental point is another form of autonomy, that of judgment". These are the words of Ignazio Visco, governor of Bank of Italy, who spoke this morning in Rome at the naming ceremony of the Bank of Italy's Monetary and Financial Education Center after Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.
"The dissemination of culture and the development of knowledge have acquired fundamental importance in the financial field - Visco continued - the constraints that the law imposes on financial operators to ensure the stability of the system and of individual intermediaries are not always able to ensure the substantial protection of the saver's interests. The Italian experience of recent years has shown how important it is to have sufficient basic knowledge of the products and instruments available on the financial markets to avoid being penalized in saving decisions”.
For this reason, according to the Governor, “strengthening the public's financial literacy with widespread and organic information and education is a need that is more felt today than in the past. It is a task that we feel is part of our institutional and social responsibilities and that we intend to fulfill with a wide range of activities, of which the museum project is an integral part”.
However, underlined Visco, remarking "the importance of financial education certainly does not reduce the need to guarantee transparency and correctness in relations with customers, ensure the best possible supervision by the supervisory and control authorities on the activity of banks and other financial intermediaries, intervene decisively to punish illicit and incorrect behaviour".
