Work directed to the launch of the Single Supervisory Mechanism in November has been stepped up and the advance towards the completion of Banking Union has continued. Substantial headway has been made in the full operation of the single euro payments area. In Italy, the road out of the most acute phase of recession has been rocky at times owing to political uncertainty.
Although central banks already had operational continuity strategies, most of them were not entirely prepared for the type of contingency we experienced during the pandemic. However, the mere existence of these strategies was a key element that helped us to rapidly find new ways to perform and maintain operations.