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 contrast with what happened in the other main European countries, the recovery in 2010 and 2011 was modest and the outlook for this year is not good. Banks’ profit and loss accounts are affected in the first place by the difficulties facing a large part of Italian industry.