Ignazio Visco: Overview of economic and financial developments in Italy

Concluding remarks by Mr Ignazio Visco, Governor of the Bank of Italy, at a meeting for the presentation of the Annual Report 2018 - 125th Financial Year, Bank of Italy, Rome, 31 May 2019.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Bank of Italy contributes to the definition of monetary policy in the euro area. It is the authority charged with safeguarding financial stability and supervising intermediaries. It manages payment settlement systems, monitors these systems and supervises the financial markets. It conducts economic, legal, and statistical research and provides services to the public. It is perhaps difficult to appreciate the sheer variety and breadth of everything the Bank does, given the many essential tasks it carries out in the public interest. In compliance with transparency requirements and legal obligations, the Bank provides an account of its work in the Report on Operations and Activities which, as is now customary, is published today together with the Annual Report. We are increasingly committed to promoting economic and financial knowledge and to communicating the results of our work.

The Bank's key functions are highlighted in our balance sheet, which I already talked about on 29 March in an Address to the Ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders. This also illustrated the Bank's capital reallocation, a process which began in 2014 with the reform of the ownership structure, leading to an expansion of the shareholder base. Finally, it presented the results of the financial year for 2018, which recorded a net profit of €6.2 billion, €5.7 billion of which were allocated to the State, in addition to taxes amounting to €1.2 billion.