The official site of Italy's central bank

Collateral management

The Bank of Italy is responsible for the management of the collateral that Italian banks have to provide against the financing obtained by the Eurosystem, according to Article 18.1 of the ESCB Statute.

The Bank identifies the financial assets that can be used as collateral on the basis of the criteria defined by the Eurosystem. In particular, the Bank of Italy is in charge of updating, with respect to the securities quoted in the Italian markets, the list of the marketable assets that can be used by counterparties (Eligible Asset Data Base). In the case of non-marketable assets, the Bank accepts eligible credit claims.

For every refinancing operation, the Bank of Italy receives from its counterparties the information related to the securities that they intend to pledge, verifies their eligibility and determines their value according to established criteria.

Moreover the Bank checks on a daily basis that the market value of collateral, after the application of risk control measures, is sufficient to cover the amount of refinancing provided to each counterparty, and requires integration in case of need.