Born in Bergamo in 1960, she graduated with honours in Economics from the University of Bergamo in 1984. She then received an M.Sc. and a PhD in Economics from the London School of Economics.

She joined the Bank of Italy in 1989, where she worked in the Research Department first in the Sector and Region Analysis Unit, then in the Financial Flows Unit, then in the Law and Economics Division which she directed since 2007.

In January 2014 she was appointed head of the Consumer Protection and Anti-Money Laundering Directorate.

Since June 2020, she has been Head of the new Directorate General for Consumer Protection and Financial Education, which deals with conduct supervision, individual consumer protection, financial education programs.

She has published articles on corporate governance and corporate finance, bankruptcy and the economics of civil justice and more generally on regulatory matters, on gender issues and lately on financial consumer protection and financial literacy. In these areas she has published articles and books and coordinated various research projects.

She served as economic advisor to the Italian Minister of Justice in 2012-2013 and is consultant to the President of the Republic on economic policy matters.

She was a member of the National Committee for Financial Education from 2017 and 2023 and is member of the Governing Council of FinCoNet. Since 2021 she is Co-Chair of the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) and since 2022 she is Chair of the OECD International Network for Financial Education.

She chaired the Bank of Italy Women Association (ADBI) and the Bank of Italy Equal Opportunity Committee. Married, she has a daughter and a son.