All these measures serve to guarantee banks access to a sufficient supply of liquidity, in order to ensure that the normal operation of the lending and payments system is never interrupted, even in conditions of serious turbulence. Together with the interventions by the monetary authorities, the announcement of these measures helped ease tensions on the interbank market in the autumn.
Thirdly, to deal with potentially difficult situations, Decree Law 155/2008 authorizes the Treasury to subscribe capital increases of banks facing a situation of capital inadequacy ascertained by the Bank of Italy. The Government shareholding takes the form of non-voting preference shares; such public intervention is subject to the presentation of a restructuring plan assessed by the Bank of Italy.