While actively aiming to bring monetary stability to Italy and to move towards monetary unification in Europe, Tommaso started working in payment systems – an apparently obscure area of work. Before he took on responsibilities in this area at the Banca d’Italia, payment systems were not considered an independent (and even less core) function of central banks.
The activities carried out by payment system departments today largely did not exist at that time and to some extent were done by IT departments and back offices. Tommaso provided the conceptual and economic rationale for a greater involvement by central banks in this area.