For the most part, an open international financial system has operated to the benefit of economic activity and wider social welfare. It has channelled savings to countries with productive investment opportunities, it has been a vehicle for the transfer of managerial and technological know-how, and it has served as a source of discipline on unsustainable and harmful macroeconomic policies.
The reform process and the coming months Major reforms have been launched in recent years to allow Italy’s financial system to modernize, in line with the new global and European regulatory framework and with economic, social and technological changes. The long overdue reforms of Italy’s cooperative banks (“banche popolari”) and mutual banks (“banche di credito cooperativo”) have been crucial.