And even though I have set out the reasons why we need to quickly enhance comparability among European banks, we take these concerns seriously. Indeed, we have taken decisive action to address these risks, and we are confident that this will improve the outlook for the Italian credit market.
The impact of this boom on the household sector has been quite marked: as house values have risen, both households and banks have been keen to increase mortgages and leverage up financing. Householders feel richer (as indeed they may be if house prices stay high) and borrow and spend more off the back of that.