I thank those parties who  2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  objected to Barclays’ initiatives, as they have indirectly contributed to a rapid resolution of an issue that would otherwise have dragged on and on. With the new law and the clarity it now provides, such a situation should not arise again.
Net foreign purchases of Italian government securities, in particular by institutional investors, began to show signs of recovery in mid-2012, and continued through 2013. But the confidence of foreign investors, at times summarily dismissed as “speculators”, can be very quickly undermined by any sign of deterioration in a sovereign borrower’s creditworthiness.