The official site of Italy's central bank

Supervision

In its capacity as regulatory authority, the Bank performs the functions aimed at maintaining financial stability, acting on the basis of the powers and responsibilities it is assigned by Italian law with regard to the control of individual intermediaries and the financial system as a whole.
In conformity with Community law, the Bank exercises its supervisory powers over banks, banking groups and financial intermediaries to ensure the sound and prudent management of the persons subject to supervision, the overall stability, efficiency and competitiveness of the financial system, and compliance with banking and financial rules and regulations.
The Bank has authority to issue secondary legislation, carries out controls on intermediaries, acts to protect the transparency of the contractual conditions for banking and financial operations, and fosters conduct on the part of intermediaries marked not only by compliance with the letter of the law but also by a substantive improvement in relations with customers.
The powers of control are exercised while respecting the entrepreneurial nature of the persons subject to supervision, who are free to choose their strategies, organizational models and investment policies within a general framework of prudential rules.
The main parameter for the prudential regulation of intermediaries¡¦ stability is their capital: the availability of adequate own funds in relation to the risks assumed increases firms¡¦ ability to cope with unexpected losses. The quality of firms¡¦ organizational arrangements is also of great importance.
Supervision of the banks and other financial intermediaries is based on analyses and interventions serving to ensure the prompt identification of signs of potential problems in technical and organizational setups and to foster their removal through appropriate corrective measures. Supervisory action consists on the one hand of documentary controls ƒ{ based on the systematic collection, processing and analysis of a mass of statistical, accounting and administrative data ƒ{ and on the other of on-site examinations, aimed at checking the quality and accuracy of the data transmitted and studying organizational and operational aspects in more detail. Ad hoc measures are adopted when serious problems are found in intermediaries¡¦ financial situations.
The Bank plays an active role in the international committees engaged in cooperation and in the technical fora that contribute to the preparation of Community law and the convergence of supervisory practices; it also participates in the formulation of best practices and common prudential rules capable of ensuring equal treatment for intermediaries operating internationally and preventing regulatory arbitrage.
The Bank is also committed to preventing financial crime, money-laundering and usury. In order to safeguard the integrity of the financial system, it issues instructions to intermediaries and, where necessary, imposes sanctions.
It collaborates with the judicial authorities and other investigative bodies in the fight against economic crime.