You missed the back and forth between The New York Times and the Bank of Italy in the middle of the lockdown?
We were in March and the topic was the resilience of the Italian banking system in the face of the Covid health and economic emergency.
“While Italy is facing the devastation of an unexpected coronavirus threat, fears are intensifying that economic damage could trigger a much more familiar danger: a banking crisis. The banks of Italy and their formidable heaps of bad loans have long been a central concern in an economy that has not grown in more than a decade. The nation's lenders are at the same time quite large, sufficiently integrated with the world and adequately shaky to pose a constant threat to the global financial system.”
So it began the article by Peter S. Goodman where it was asserted that: “Italian banks are one step away from a calamity that could force them into a rescue operation "
The Bank of Italy's response was that "Although the article recognizes the progress made by the Italian banking system, fundamental information on its actual condition is omitted, thus ending up providing a somewhat misleading representation of its resilience ".
In document downloadable here, signed by the Deputy General Manager L. Federico Signorini the elements that prove the strengthening of the Italian banks are highlighted, on the quality of assets, to sovereign exposures to capital adequacy and profitability. Not forgetting to list the support measures put in place by the Italian government to facilitate the provision of credit.
But a few months later, the recently appointed Deputy General Manager Alessandra Perrazzelli returned to the topic in an interview with Corriere della Sera where he stated that "Italian banks are certainly more solid than 10 years ago but non-performing loans can make a comeback. I would like to point out in particular that the prolongation of the emergency could put smaller banks in difficulty”.
Alex Gaetani