Giovanni Santini

Giovanni Santini

Head of the Banking Supervision 1 Directorate

He was born on 2 April 1973 in Terni. He graduated with honours in Economics in 1997 from the University of Perugia; his dissertation in Accounting and Auditing was completed at the University of Greenwich (London).

In 1998, he joined Banca d'Italia at the Perugia branch, where he carried out off-site and on-site supervision as well as economic research activities.

In 2007, he was assigned to the Banking and Financial Supervision Area at Banca d'Italia Head Office in Rome, where he supervised medium-sized and large banks. He worked on key projects concerning loan loss provisioning and Pillar 2 capital requirements; he coordinated a working group focused on non-performing loans (annual NPL disposal surveys and recovery rates) and contributed to the introduction of new supervisory reporting on bad loans.

In 2014, he was appointed Deputy Head of the Banking Groups Division I, responsible for supervising several significant banking groups. He actively contributed to the launch of Joint Supervisory Teams (JSTs) within the newly established Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM). He served as national coordinator for the JSTs of several major Italian banking groups and oversaw the first M&A transaction carried out after the start of the SSM.

Between 2013 and 2015, he participated in the Basel Committee Task Force responsible for drafting guidelines on the supervision of weak banks.

In 2018, he was appointed Head of the Banking Groups Division I. During the same period, he coordinated staff from the European Central Bank and other national authorities in supervising the capital adequacy and profitability of a major banking group.

In 2022, he was appointed Deputy Head of the Banking Supervision 1 Directorate.

He represents Banca d'Italia in the Basel Committee working group on Pillar 2, aimed at encouraging financial intermediaries to properly measure and manage risks, complementing minimum capital requirements.

He is the author of studies and publications in the banking and financial field. He has also organized training initiatives and participated as a speaker at academic and institutional seminars and conferences.

He has been Head of the Banking Supervision 1 Directorate since 1 July 2026.