“Italian banks will have to continue to strengthen in order to finance the economy. Their business model, focused on the direct intermediation of savings rather than investments in complex and opaque financial assets, may serve the purpose. But it must be revisited and strengthened, overcoming the limits that emerged during the crisis". This was stated by the governor of Bank of Italy, Ignazio Visco, speaking at the conference organized today in Rome by ACRI for the 90th World Savings Day.
The Italian banking system has to deal “with determination also with the high amount of non-performing loans, the growth of which is still continuing, albeit at a slower rate – continued the governor -. The cost containment action must continue. The recovery of adequate levels of profitability, necessary to remunerate higher capital endowments than in the past, also requires a different revenue structure”.
The number one of Via Nazionale then underlined that, in a European context that has returned to weakening more than expected, "we are not in deflation, but we cannot ignore the concrete risk", and that "a very low inflation, far from the objective of price stability” can make “punctual compliance with the European debt rule” counterproductive. It is therefore necessary not to interpret the rules in a restrictive sense, but to exploit the "margins" of flexibility which allow for "reconciling budgetary discipline and support for growth", added Visco, defining the government's decision to make "more gradual the process of rebalancing public finances”.
The governor then reiterated the urgency of "joint action to support public investments, which have decreased by a quarter in four years". In order to proceed quickly with the implementation of the plan proposed by the new president of the European Commission, Junker, "the contribution of all sources of financing is necessary: the Community budget, the European Investment Bank, private investors, the same national public budgets".
