Their holdings of assets eligible as collateral in Eurosystem refinancing operations are substantial; recourse to such operations is more limited than that of other euro-area banking systems. Since last year the Bank of Italy has asked banks to strengthen their capital bases. Shareholders, banking foundations and investors have responded readily.
Between October 2010 and April of this year capital increases totalling more than € billion were launched. The majority of these operations will be completed by the autumn. They make it possible to approach the objective set by Basel III for 2019.