The official site of Italy's central bank

Correspondent services

The Euro’s performance within a context of increasingly integrated financial markets has led the Bank of Italy to strengthen its correspondent banking services by introducing technological and functional innovations concerning both payment management and securities. At the same time, these services have come to be used by a wider range of clients, including Public Administration, the central banks of countries outside of the euro area and supranational bodies.

This process has been boosted by the decision of the European Central Bank’s Governing Council to offer, as of 1 January 2005, a wide range of services for the management of reserves in euro in compliance with the standard terms and conditions laid down by the Euro system (Euro system Reserve Management Services - ERMS). These services are offered on a voluntary basis by the individual central banks, which can also decide to offer the entire range of standard services in the capacity of Euro system service providers (ESP) or a subset of standard services in the capacity of Individual service providers (ISP). These services are especially intended for the central banks of countries outside of the euro area and for supranational bodies wishing to hold assets denominated in euros.

The Bank of Italy has decided to offer the entire range of services in a “modular” configuration, allowing clients to choose the types of services they wish to use.