The quality of the Italian banks’ capital is high by international standards. We are also aware that the rigour with which we evaluate the inclusion of financial instruments in regulatory capital has appeared, in the past, to put Italian banks at a disadvantage with respect to the situation in other countries.
We deliberately maintained this policy, even when the market seemed to tolerate particularly high levels of risk. These practices, these evaluation criteria, which have been put to the test in the last two years, have so far brought benefits to banks, the economy, and the public finances. Liquidity The system’s liquidity is still guaranteed by the massive injections of funds from the central banks.