The expansion in economic activity and orderly conditions on the sovereign debt market facilitates, together with renewed investor confidence, a gradual decline in the stock of government securities held in banks’ balance sheets, as shown by the significant reduction in exposures between the beginning of 2015 and the end of 2017.
The global financial crisis, the sovereign debt crisis and the attendant double-dip recession led to a significant restructuring of Italian banks’ liabilities. There has been a sharp reduction in market funding; risk premiums have increased owing to factors specific to the banking sector and to the changes in the conditions of the public finances.