At the end of January a large Italian bank returned to the international market with an issue of unsecured bonds that was favourably received by investors; the yield was not significantly higher than that on Italian government securities. 3. Banks’ profitability and capital strengthening  In 2009 the financial crisis and the recession caused a sharp fall in Italian banks’ profits.
In Japan, the default of a midsized securities firm in the interbank money market, despite the small amount of default, triggered a steep liquidity contraction in the money market and led to turmoil in Japan’s financial system as a whole.