New Guide for supervisory activities

5 May 2026

The simplification of the supervisory framework has become increasingly important at international and national level. At European level, at the end of 2025, the ECB developed a set of action lines for streamlining the regulatory, supervisory and supervisory reporting framework, with the contribution of national authorities. In line with the European work, Banca d'Italia has launched specific projects to simplify its legislation, as well as processes and tools for supervisory activities.

In this context, Banca d'Italia has updated and streamlined the Guide for supervisory activities (Circular No. 269 of 2008), the main reference for assessment methodologies and procedures relating to the prudential supervision of banks and non-banks.

At the end of the first phase of the project a new structure of the Guide has been introduced, dividing supervisory topics into five modules, assigned to SREP, on-site activities, supervisory measures and sanctioning procedures, administrative proceedings, and organization and cooperation. The modules are then subdivided into three levels of detail, from general principles to assessment methodologies, to more operational aspects. An extract from the 17th update of the Circular is available on Banca d'Italia's website. Compared to the previous version, the general principles, the overall rationale underlying supervisory reviews and processes and the criteria that drive off-site and on-site supervision are now published with a more linear, consistent and user-friendly text, due to the new structure and other refinements applied to the representation of the contents.

At a later stage, also in relation to how the framework evolves, possible extensions of the public version, the sharing of additional simplification's initiatives of processes and methodologies, the development of additional functionalities for research and access to content will be examined.

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