In order to increase the profitability of the Italian banking system and make it sounder, counterintuitive events are necessary: firms must increase their capital and diversify their sources of financing in order to reduce the role played by banks in the financial system. 11  Signs of this are already apparent.
The moderate expansion in bank lending to firms in recent years, despite its recent recovery, is also a result of this process. From 2012, firms’ leverage (the ratio of debt to debt plus equity) has fallen, the share of bonds in total financial debt has increased and the share of bank lending has diminished in equal measure.