Defending and fostering competition are an integral, indispensable part of banking supervision. They must guide the use of the instruments of supervision, regardless of whether there is an antitrust law. This is the approach followed by the Bank of Italy, both before and after the approval of antitrust legislation in 1990.
If the law entrusts the task of defending and fostering competition to the supervisory authority (as in the United States and in Italy since 1990), the latter’s position is strengthened. The need for and shortcomings of coordination A reasonable degree of decentralization implies coordination of the various supervisory authorities.