But the current imbalance between lending and stable funding will make it difficult to return to a model of profitability growth based principally on expanding the volume of business. Vigorous action is needed to tackle operating costs, which have been relatively inflexible in relation to the state of the banking industry.
The present level of labour costs is unlikely to be compatible with the prospective growth of the Italian banking system. The compensation of directors and top managers too must reflect the objective of containing costs. Ambitious strategies are needed to boost the efficiency of production and distribution significantly and capitalize on the contribution of new technologies.