*  *  *  The macroeconomic context and its impact on banks From 2008 to the present day Italy has been buffeted by the worst economic crisis of the post-war period.
The trouble started with the explosion of defaults in the US subprime mortgage sector and soon spread to the markets for several complex and difficult-to-value assets, dubbed “toxic” When it became apparent that several European banks – but not Italian ones – also had considerable exposure to these instruments, the euro-area interbank market all but collapsed.