The major vulnerabilities of the Italian banking system are the overhang of NPLs and low profitability. Differently from the attention given to excesses of NPLs, the profitability problem is normally considered to be a matter to be left to bank management and not an area of explicit direct...

The drive towards radical reforms of financial regulation is weakening as financial firms seem to be returning to calmer waters. The proposals that now appear to be having a higher probability of adoption leave the financial structure and its regulation substantially unchanged. An analysis of...