Bank of Italy Legislation

The Bank of Italy's functional and governance arrangements are based on a variety of different legal sources:

• Community law, which regulates the activity of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB),
• the provisions of banking and financial law concerning its supervisory powers,
• other provisions governing its relations with the Ministry for the Economy and Finance and other authorities, and
• its Statute and General Regulations.

At national level, an indirect reference to the Bank's functions can be found in Article 47(1) of the Constitution, which provides for the protection of savings ("The Republic encourages and protects saving in all its forms, it regulates, coordinates and controls the provision of credit").

The main legal sources concerning the Bank's functions and organization are:

• Legislative Decree 385/1993 (the Consolidated Law on Banking);
• Legislative Decree 58/1998 (the Consolidated Law on Finance);
• Legislative Decree 43/1998, which adapts Italian law to the provisions of the EC Treaty on monetary policy and the European System of Central Banks;
• Law 262/2005, containing provisions for the protection of savings and the regulation of financial markets;
• Legislative Decree 303/2006, containing provisions coordinating the Consolidated Law on Banking and the Consolidated Law on Finance with Law 262/2005;
• Law 5/2014, conversion into law of the decree law 133/2013 containing provisions for the Bank of Italy;
• Law 234/2021, the 2022 Budget Law, containing, among other things, the rules for raising the limit on the Bank of Italy's ownership of share capital from 3 to 5 per cent;
• the Bank's new Statute, approved by a Decree of the President of the Republic dated 27 June 2022.

Statute

With its publication in the Gazzetta Ufficiale (Serie Generale) No. 181 of 4 August 2022, the Bank of Italy's new Statute came into force.

The amendments raise the limit on the Bank of Italy's ownership of share capital from 3 to 5 per cent, as provided for by the 2022 Budget Law, in force from 1 January 2022; they promote the best functioning of the statutory bodies; they remove some obsolete clauses; and they redefine the distribution of the checks on the accounts between the Board of Auditors and external auditors or auditing firms.

The Statute had previously been amended in 2016 in order to implement the regulatory changes introduced by Law 5/2014 regarding the dematerialization of shares in the Bank's capital. In order to be in line with the Eurosystem, it also provided for bringing forward the deadlines for approving the budget and the distribution of profits.

The Statute sets out the rules for the Bank's structure, organization and administration. It specifies the Bank's legal status as 'public law institution'; it recalls the European institutional framework in which the Bank is set; and, as is envisaged for the European Central Bank, it explicitly cites the principle of the Bank's independence in performing its functions and in managing its finances. The new Statute also introduces an express reference to the principles of functionality and efficiency that must govern the central administration and branches.

The Statute reaffirms the principle, constantly observed in practice, that the Shareholders' Assembly and the Board of Directors have no power of intervention with respect to the performance of the Bank's institutional functions, confirming the system of governance that has guaranteed the Bank's autonomy and independence over the years.

General Regulations

The General Regulations are approved by the Board of Directors of the Bank of Italy pursuant to Article 19 of the Statute. It is the main document governing the Bank's organization.

The present text is updated to the Directorates general organizational model (as of January 27^th, 2014) and to the Statute's latest edition (Presidential Decree of December 27^th, 2013).

The Regulations consist of four Titles:

• Capital and corporate bodies (Articles 1-12), concerning participation in the Bank's capital and the functioning of some central and peripheral corporate bodies,
• Organization (Articles 13-40), regulating the organization of the Head Office and of the branches and specifying the functions and duties of the heads of the Offices and their powers of delegation,
• Operations and services (Articles 41-63), covering the operations and services performed by the Bank, and
• Directorates general and Directorates of the Head Office (Article 64-104), setting out the activities of such organizational units.