Its establishment was also deemed a priority in the 2015 Five Presidents’ Report on Completing the European Economic and Monetary Union.6 Since the very outset of the negotiations on the SRM, Italy has been one of the most active supporters of the need for a backstop to the SRF, especially one involving the ESM.
The reform of the ESM now being discussed introduces such a backstop, whose size is aligned with the actual level of the SRF (as indicated in the Terms of Reference agreed in December 20187 and referred to in Recitals 5A and 15B, as well as in Annex IV of the proposed reform); it therefore goes in the direction 5  6  7  ‘Changes in the way banking crises are managed’, FAQ published in the ‘In detail’ section of the Bank of Italy’s website, 8 July 2015.