A review of production and distribution processes will lead to efficiency gains and cost savings. Profit levels could be raised through greater diversification of revenues, which could include helping firms to 4  BIS central bankers’ speeches  access markets directly. There is scope for mergers and acquisitions designed to rationalize corporate structures and modernize production and distribution processes.
Appropriate corporate governance structures capable of increasing firms’ resilience and competitiveness remain essential. The Government recently announced a reform of Italy’s cooperative banks that responds to needs identified long ago – by us, by the International Monetary Fund and by the European Commission – and now made more pressing by the transition to single banking supervision.