The official site of Italy's central bank

Supervisory principles and activities

The business of banks and financial intermediaries is subject to extensive regulation, which is also intended to encourage correct and prudent conduct. It consists of laws, the resolutions adopted by the Interministerial Committee for Credit and Savings in accordance with Article 47 of the Constitution and Community law. The Bank of Italy issues the technical provisions through circulars, regulations and supervisory measures.

The constant control of intermediaries is especially important to prevent crises from occurring and to be able to implement corrective actions. The checks are both of a documentary nature, on a mass of statistical, accounting and administrative data, and in the form of inspections.

The Bank of Italy carries out checks of varying intensity on intermediaries.

For some the checks cover all the different aspects of their business: satisfaction of the requirements to engage in the business, capital stability and sound and prudent management. In the latter case the Bank of Italy focuses on: the consistency of the organizational arrangements, the quality of the management, the control of risks, the adequacy of the capital to cope with losses, the compliance with the law on transparency, money laundering and usury.

Across-the-board checks are carried out on:

The law gives the Bank of Italy many instruments with which to supervise banks and financial intermediaries and intervene when there are problems, including the right to convene the board of directors or the shareholders’ meeting and to impose restrictions on some activities.
In the most serious cases the Bank may adopt measures such as special administration and compulsory administrative liquidation and in the event of operational irregularities and violations of the law it may impose administrative sanctions on the guilty corporate officers.

The Bank of Italy also carries out checks limited to verifying satisfaction of the requirements to engage in the business and compliance with the sectoral legislation and that on money laundering and usury, without verifying the capital adequacy and sound and prudent management, by:

Legislative Decree 141/2010 introduced a far-reaching reform of the rules governing these entities. The effects will emerge gradually with the issue of the related implementing provisions and the establishment of the self-regulatory bodies that will keep the registers of financial agents, loan brokers and the smaller and microcredit collective loan guarantee entities.

Professional gold traders are subject exclusively to verification of satisfaction of the requirements for engaging in the business.