"The COVID-19 pandemic shock: resilience, lessons learnt and way forward"19-20-21 April 2021

Like many other institutions, Banca d'Italia is coping with the challenges of the pandemic and its spillovers. To face the COVID-19 pandemic shock, Banca d'Italia adopted extraordinary measures for the organization of work with the primary objectives of ensuring essential institutional functions and safeguarding staff's health and safety. Both critical processes and, to the maximum extent possible, ordinary activities were guaranteed. Remote working became the default-operating model with all functions quickly adapting to the new circumstances.

These changes and their impact on the functions, people, organization, decision-making and use of technology in the Bank have emerged more clearly with the passing of time, as well as the challenges to business continuity, crisis and operational risk management and to the general approach to resilience.

In the field of market operations, major challenges included the need to ensure smooth information flows both within and among the relevant Units, as well as the adequacy of the measures adopted to mitigate operational risks. The seminar will look at the experience of the Units conducting investment and monetary policy operations, given that these Units had to ensure timely information and staff coordination and to maintain robust control over their operational processes.