The increase in competition in banking markets, further intensified by foreign intermediaries accustomed to operating on a larger scale and with smaller interest rate spreads, has sharply reduced the profitability of Italian banks’ traditional activities.
1 Moody’s Investors Service 2 First National Bank / Bureau for Economic Research  Page 2 of 10  The rand is currently trading at around R12.50 against the US dollar, after having appreciated to a low of around R11.60 in late February.