ACRI
Association of Italian Savings Banks
2024 World Savings Day
1924-2024: one hundred years of fostering a savings culture
Address by the Governor of Banca d'Italia
Fabio Panetta

Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen,
World Savings Day was established one hundred years ago, during the
celebrations for the foundation of Cassa di Risparmio delle Provincie Lombarde.1
Every year since then, this day has focused on the importance of saving.
Saving means transferring resources from the present to the future: people
save in order to smooth consumption over the course of their lives; to handle
unforeseen events such as job loss or illness; to pay for education, buy a house or
start a business.
A person's ability to save depends on their expected lifetime income, although
the constraint of current earnings becomes stringent for those who, like many young
people, struggle to access credit. The social protection system also plays an important
role: a generous pension and an efficient healthcare system attenuate the need to set
resources aside. Finally, saving decisions are based on wealth - that which we inherit
and that which we plan to leave to our loved ones2 - and on expected returns.3
Savings are an element of stability in the lives of households, yet they are also
an important resource for business investment.
Savings and economic and social progress are closely linked, as recognized by
Article 47 of Italy's Constitution, which states that 'The Republic shall foster and
protect savings in all forms'.
1
Cassa di Risparmio delle Provincie Lombarde was founded in 1823, but the international conference
marking its 100th anniversary was postponed to 1924 for organizational reasons.
2
'[V]i sono [...] uomini, fortunatamente i più, i quali, mossi da sentimenti diversi, hanno l'istinto della
costruzione. [...] Il padre non risparmia per sé; ma spera di creare qualcosa che assicuri nell'avvenire
la vita della famiglia', L. Einaudi, Lezioni di politica sociale, Turin, Einaudi, 2004 (c. 1949), p. 191
(There are men who, driven by a wide range of different feelings, have an instinct for construction.
The father does not save for his own benefit, but rather hopes to create something that will secure the
wellbeing of his family in the future).
3
The higher the return the greater the incentive to save, thereby increasing opportunities for consumption
in the future.
1. One hundred years of saving in Italy
In 1924, when World Savings Day was established, Italians' savings had
bridged the gap with the other advanced economies,4 thanks to the increase
resulting from the economic growth of the Giolittian Era (1901-1914) and the
sizeable remittances by Italian emigrants.5 The stock of bank deposits and postal
savings books amounted to 27 per cent of GDP.6
Subsequent dramatic historical events - the Great Depression, the Second
World War and post-war inflation - decimated the financial wealth of an entire
generation: by 1948 the value of bank and postal deposits had plummeted to 10
per cent of GDP.
Those painful experiences sharpened the focus of society and of the newly
established republican institutions on savings. The protection of savings was even
enshrined in our Constitution, a rarity in the international landscape.7
After the Second World War and up to the early 1990s, Italian households
were saving one quarter of their income every year on average (Figure 1).8
4
According to the available statistical reconstructions, Italy's gross national savings (including the public
sector) stood at 9 per cent of GDP in the mid-1920s and, up until the eve of the Second World War,
remained on average lower than in Germany and the United States, and higher than in the United Kingdom.
5
M. Gomellini and C. Ó Gráda, 'Le migrazioni', in G. Toniolo (ed.), 'L'Italia e l'economia mondiale:
dall'Unità a oggi', Venice, Marsilio, 2013 (Historical Series of Banca d'Italia - Analysis and Essays
Series, XII), pp. 375-421.
6
F. Cotula, T. Raganelli, V. Sannucci, S. Alieri, and E. Cerrito (eds.), 'I bilanci delle aziende di credito
1890-1936', Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1996 (Historical Series of Banca d'Italia - Statistics Series, III);
R. De Bonis, F. Farabullini, M. Rocchelli and A. Salvio, 'Nuove serie storiche sull'attività di banche
e altre istituzioni finanziarie dal 1861 al 2011: che cosa ci dicono?', Banca d'Italia, Economic History
Working Papers, 26, 2012.
7
C. Pagliarin, 'Le radici costituzionali della tutela del risparmio', Banca Impresa Società, 1, 2021, pp. 29-58.
The drafters of the Constitution decided to include the safeguarding of savings in the Constitution,
although they were aware of the risk that rules similar to Article 47 could turn it into 'a memorandum
and a list' (Constituent Assembly, session of 19 May 1947, p. 4039). This decision is a testament to the
deep wound that the severe monetary disasters of the previous 30 years had inflicted on our economic
and social fabric and individual experiences.
8
This flow of savings does not include social security contributions, although in the perspective of
the life-cycle theory originally put forward by Richard Brumberg and Franco Modigliani (and then
extended by Modigliani and Albert Ando), they are indeed a form of saving, albeit involuntary. See
A. Ando and F. Modigliani, 'The "life cycle" hypothesis of saving: aggregate implications and tests',
American Economic Review, 53, 1, 1963, pp. 55-84.
The household saving rate began to decline in the 1980s; it then fell more rapidly
after 1992, and eventually stabilized at 10 per cent in this century.9
There are several reasons behind this reduction in the propensity to save.
In the 1980s, the presence of a very generous public pension system was an
important contributory factor.
Later on, household saving was adversely affected by macroeconomic
conditions. The 1992 currency crisis and the subsequent fiscal consolidation
squeezed disposable income, leading households to save less in order to sustain
consumption. On top of that, since the late 1990s, the fall in interest rates brought
about by the introduction of the euro and better access to credit have favoured
current over future consumption.
More recently, savings have been affected by the global financial crisis, the
sovereign debt crisis in the euro area, and finally by the pandemic.
Demographic factors have also come into play. Population ageing has
compounded the fall in the saving rate, with a rising share of elderly people drawing
on their assets to fund their expenses, and therefore recording negative savings.10
The resources set aside by younger workers have been very limited, due to their
low incomes.11
9
The rise in the saving rate as a consequence of forced saving during the pandemic was the exception
to this general trend.
10
In 1991, for each resident aged 65 or over, there were four people aged between 20 and 64; today
that number has become two. For more details, see A. Brandolini and A. Rosolia, 'Consumi, redditi,
risparmi e benessere', in A. Golini and A. Rosina (eds.), Il secolo degli anziani. Come cambierà
l'Italia, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2011, pp. 137-158.
11
With less stable and low-paid jobs, young people are being limited in their ability to save, in spite of
the stimulus to make precautionary savings to meet their needs during periods of unemployment. See
A. Rosolia, 'L'evoluzione delle retribuzioni in Italia tra il 1986 e il 2004 secondo i dati dell'archivio
WHIP', Politica economica, 2, 2010, pp. 179-201; A. Rosolia and R. Torrini, 'The generation gap:
a cohort analysis of earnings levels, dispersion and initial labor market conditions in Italy,
1974-2014', Banca d'Italia, Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers), 366, 2016.
But households are not the only savers: in this century, corporate savings have
grown steadily, accounting for two thirds of private savings in the last decade
(Figure 2).12
Overall, the annual flow of private savings now exceeds €400 billion, or one fifth
of national income. Only part of it, however, goes towards financing investments
in Italy. In the five years before the pandemic, domestic financial resources spent
abroad averaged 2.5 per cent of GDP. Had they been used to purchase capital
goods, investments would have increased by almost one fifth.
2. A stable, growth-oriented economy
Having a robust real economy is the first pillar in the protection of savings.
A robust economy is one that grows and invests, generating jobs, income and
opportunities to use savings profitably. By contrast, an economy vulnerable to
shocks is prone to frequent recessions, which tend to slow the accumulation of
savings.
The Italian economy has gone through difficult phases in this century. Between
2000 and 2019, Italy's real GDP per capita declined slightly, against an increase of
25 per cent for the other European countries, although they too were losing ground
to the United States.
I have already discussed this disappointing trend and its causes in past speeches:
low innovation capacity and limited investment, a fragmented production system
oriented towards traditional sectors, shortcomings in the public administration and
in infrastructure, and low labour market participation.
The high level of public debt amplifies these weaknesses, exposing the
economy to the vagaries of the markets and limiting our ability to react effectively
to adverse circumstances. Interest expenditure absorbs considerable resources,
which could otherwise go into funding education, infrastructure and healthcare.13
In recent years, the Italian economy has shown encouraging signs of
improvement. After the crisis of the last decade, the production system has
undergone a profound - and painful - overhaul. Firms have come out stronger.14
These changes help explain how the Italian economy has been able to bounce
back from recent shocks. Since the end of 2019, Italy's GDP has grown by 5.5 per
cent, against 4.1 per cent for France and 0.2 per cent for Germany.15
The global economy is now in a phase of uncertainty and weakness. According
to the latest IMF estimates, global GDP is expected to grow by just over 3 per cent
in 2025, below the average for previous decades. The euro-area economy remains
weak (Figure 3), partly owing to still high real interest rates and the end of the fiscal
stimulus measures introduced in previous years. The Italian economy is suffering
as a result.
However, it is the longer-term trends that are worrying: ongoing conflicts, the
fragmentation of global trade, the division of countries into opposing blocs, and
a continent, Europe, which is suffering the effects of population decline, lagging
behind and losing influence in international relations.
In this context, the European Union and Italy stand in need of far-reaching reforms.
Europe needs to revive the sense of common purpose that enabled the adoption
of the NextGenerationEU programme and has since waned. The areas in which
to take action are numerous:16 we need to realize the full potential of the single
market; launch joint projects in innovation and technology, starting with the
13
As I noted recently, Italy is the only euro-area country where interest payments on public debt almost
match spending on education; see F. Panetta, 'If we are not after the essence, then what are we after?',
speech at the 45th Foundation Meeting for Friendship among Peoples, Rimini, 21 August 2024.
14
F. Panetta, 'The Governor's Concluding Remarks for 2023', Rome, 31 May 2024.
15
These figures include preliminary estimates for the third quarter of 2024 released on 30 October.
16
F. Panetta, 'The future of Europe's economy amid geopolitical risks and global fragmentation', Lectio
Magistralis on the occasion of the conferral of an honorary degree in Juridical Sciences in Banking and
Finance by the University of Roma Tre, 23 April 2024; F. Panetta, 'The Governor's Concluding Remarks
for 2023', Rome, 31 May 2024; M. Draghi, The future of European competitiveness, September 2024.
digital and green transitions; reduce foreign dependency in the energy and defence
sectors; streamline rules and regulations; create a centralized and autonomous
fiscal capacity; and address the demographic challenge.
Italy has an important responsibility in lending credibility to the European
project, which it can fulfil by carrying out the investments and reforms laid out in
the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, reducing the public debt-to-GDP ratio,
and decisively tackling the unresolved issues I have mentioned.
3. Monetary stability
Monetary stability is the second pillar in the protection of savings. Inflation
worsens the allocation of resources and erodes the real value of savings.17
In its first two decades of existence, the monetary union ensured moderate
inflation. The pandemic and the energy shock, however, changed this: in 2022,
consumer prices grew by 10 per cent in the euro area and by 12 per cent in
Italy.
The ECB's monetary tightening actions helped bring inflation down as swiftly
as it had risen: today, price growth stands at around 2 per cent for the first time since
2021. The ECB has thus been able to cut its key interest rates in three consecutive
Governing Council meetings since June.
However, monetary conditions are still tight and new cuts will be necessary.
As inflation subsides, our focus should be on the sluggishness of the real economy:
without a sustained recovery, inflation risks being pushed well below the target,
opening up a scenario that would be difficult for monetary policy to counteract and
should therefore be avoided.
4. Financial stability
Financial stability is the third pillar in the protection of savings. Financial
crises pose a severe threat to savers because of the destruction of wealth they bring
about.18
Banks
Over the previous decade, Italy's banking system suffered the consequences
of two recessions within a few years. Between 2008 and 2014, GDP fell by 9
per cent, leading to an increase in business bankruptcies and unemployment.19
Non-performing loans rose to 10 per cent of total loans. Banks suffered sizeable
losses, which in many cases resulted in outright banking crises.
That is now a distant memory. The banking system is currently well capitalized
and profitable. The stock market valuations of the main financial intermediaries
exceed their book values (Figure 4), signalling investor confidence in banks' ability
to generate income in the future.
These improvements reflect the efficiency gains achieved by financial
intermediaries and the strengthening of prudential rules, as well as the favourable
conditions of recent years.20
Public aid during the pandemic crisis, including the expansion of state
guarantees on loans to small and medium-sized enterprises, played an important
role. Now that the conditions allow it, the time has come to return to a system of
guarantees based on ordinary criteria.21
Looking ahead, the high capital levels and the foreseeable reduction in
profitability could push banks towards consolidation, including at cross-border
level. Consolidation deals must be made by improving efficiency and creating
strong, profitable intermediaries that can better serve the real economy.
Greater integration of the banking market at European level would increase the
soundness of banks and allow them to operate in multiple countries, diversifying
risks and strengthening the provision of services to households and firms. The
banking union needs to be completed by establishing a European deposit guarantee
scheme and improving the bank crisis management framework.
Creating a European capital market is also necessary. The most important
- though not the only - condition for achieving this goal is the introduction of a
European safe asset,22 which is essential for the operation of financial markets.23
Non-bank financial intermediaries
Non-bank intermediaries have become the main financial players, both
globally and in the euro area. In Italy, banks continue to predominate, but non-bank
intermediaries are growing rapidly (Figure 5).
21
The draft budget law for 2025 reduces the ceiling for guarantees that can be issued by the Italian
fund created to improve access to credit for SMEs from €200 billion to €160 billion. This ceiling
was €225 billion in 2023. In the five-year period 2015-19, the total guarantees issued by the fund
amounted to about €60 billion.
22
In addition to introducing a safe asset, we must draft a consolidated European law on finance,
strengthen centralized supervision of non-bank financial intermediaries, and standardize corporate
crisis management procedures; see F. Panetta, 'Europe needs to think bigger to build its capital markets
union', The ECB Blog, 30 August 2023; and F. Panetta, 'The Governor's Concluding Remarks for
2023', Rome, 31 May 2024.
23
A European safe asset would allow for better pricing of financial products, such as corporate bonds
and derivatives, encouraging their expansion; it would provide a form of collateral that could be used
across all market segments, including for cross-border transactions; and it would serve as the basis for
foreign central banks' reserves in euros, strengthening the global role of our currency.
Non-bank finance facilitates the diversification of savings and is a primary
source of funding for innovative projects, but it can make the financial system
more complex and risky.
Banca d'Italia carries out in-depth supervision of about 650 non-bank
intermediaries with diverse activities and risks.24 However, strong supervision
requires that national efforts be complemented by effective international cooperation.
Interaction between different national regulatory and supervisory frameworks
is necessary to oversee the activity of financial intermediaries operating on a
cross-border basis. This is the case for foreign intermediaries providing financial
services in Italy using the single European passport.25 This model offers advantages
in terms of competition and freedom of choice for savers, but it assumes that
supervision is highly effective everywhere, a condition that is not always met.
The supervisory rules and practices for non-bank intermediaries need to be
strengthened and harmonized across countries. Banca d'Italia is working towards
this goal at both European level and as part of the Financial Stability Board.
5. The role of Banca d'Italia in the protection of savings
The protection of savings does not end with the supervision of financial
intermediaries. It is also about ensuring the smooth operation and integrity of the
financial system as a whole.
This means working to improve people's financial skills,26 and hence their ability
to make sound investment decisions. It means offering tools to uphold savers'
24
Banca d'Italia supervises insurance companies (89 at the end of 2023) through the Italian Insurance
Supervisory Authority (IVASS). Other non-bank operators supervised by Banca d'Italia include
investment fund managers, investment firms, financial corporations providing loans, crowdfunding
service providers, electronic money institutions and payment institutions.
25
The single European passport allows financial intermediaries to freely provide their services in any
EU country without the need to establish themselves on their territory. These intermediaries are
supervised by their home country authority.
26
As part of its activities in the field of financial education, Banca d'Italia reaches more than 150,000
people each year, including students, small business owners, and socially and economically vulnerable
groups at high risk of financial exclusion.
rights quickly and inexpensively.27 It means protecting the financial system
against money laundering and the financing of terrorism.28 It means taking
direct action to counter cyber risks to financial and market infrastructures and
making sure that financial intermediaries put the necessary safeguards in place.29
It means ensuring the efficiency and security of the payment system, which is the
backbone of the financial system.30
Banca d'Italia performs all these tasks, working with law enforcement and
judicial authorities, as well as with other national and foreign supervisory and
regulatory bodies.
* * *
27
Banca d'Italia reviewed 100,000 complaints from bank customers over the decade 2014-23. The
Banking and Financial Ombudsman handled 210,000 complaints, with the assistance of Banca
d'Italia's staff. As a result of the latter and of our supervisory activities, more than €1 billion were
returned to customers. The Insurance Ombudsman service will be rolled out over the next few
months.
28
Banca d'Italia is responsible for anti-money laundering supervision of financial intermediaries, issues
relevant regulations and is involved in setting national and international rules and standards. It carried
out about 350 inspections and 1,300 interventions over 2019-23. The Financial Intelligence Unit for
Italy (UIF), which works with staff and funding from Banca d'Italia, examines reports of alleged
money laundering and terrorist financing (more than 150,000 suspicious transactions were reported in
2023) and carries out its financial analysis.
29
At national level, Banca d'Italia fosters cooperation with various institutional players through its
Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-BI). Together with the Italian Banking Association
(ABI), it chairs the Computer Emergency Response Team for the Italian financial sector (CERTFin).
At European level, Banca d'Italia is a member of the Euro Cyber Resilience Board for pan-European
Financial Infrastructures (ECRB) and the Cyber Information and Intelligence Sharing Initiative
(CIISI-EU) for sharing information and cyber intelligence across systemic financial structures.
At national and European level, Banca d'Italia monitors cyber risks in order to strengthen the security
and business continuity safeguards of intermediaries. It identifies minimum requirements and
measures for information system management.
30
Banca d'Italia manages a large number of Italian and European payment infrastructures. For
example, at European level, the Bank has been involved in the development and is responsible
for the operational management of the Eurosystem's market infrastructures, consisting of: the
T2 system for the real-time gross settlement of large-value transactions in central bank money
between financial institutions and with the central bank; the TARGET2-Securites (T2S) platform,
which enables securities transactions in central bank money to be settled simultaneously based on
the delivery versus payment principle; the TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) system
for instant payment settlement, which has been processing transactions in Swedish krona, in
addition to those in euros, since February 2024. The first two platforms are managed together
with the central banks of Germany, France and Spain, while TIPS has been fully developed and
is managed autonomously by Banca d'Italia.
Saving means looking ahead, at times with uncertainty and concern, more often
with confidence and optimism. Adam Smith wrote that 'the principle which
prompts to save, the desire of bettering our condition; a desire which [...] comes
with us from the womb, and never leaves us till we go into the grave'.31
Savings are a source of stability and progress for households, as well as an
invaluable asset for the economic and civil advancement of a country.
The protection of savings, enshrined in our Constitution, is at the heart of Banca
d'Italia's action.
Yet it is crucial that all those who manage people's savings operate with integrity
and abide by the highest ethical and professional standards.
Only then can we ensure that savings continue to be a driver of prosperity and
progress for current and future generations, making it possible to look ahead with
foresight and peace of mind.

FIGURES

Figure 1
GDP and household finances
(indices: 1992=1; per cent)
1.50 30
1.25 25
1.00 20
0.75 15
0.50 10
0.25 5
0.00 0
1960 1980 2000 2020
Household consumption Household disposable income
GDP Saving rate (1)
Source: Istat's national accounts.
(1) Right-hand scale.
Figure 2
Gross saving
(billions of euros)
500 500
400 400
300 300
200 200
100 100
0 0
-100 -100
1980 1990 2000 2010 2020
General government Firms Households Total
Source: Istat's national accounts by institutional sectors.
Figure 3
Euro-area GDP growth rate
and contributions of domestic and foreign demand
(quarterly data; percentage changes and percentage points)
2 2
1 1
0 0
-1 -1
2021 2022 2023 2024
GDP (1) Net foreign demand Domestic demand
Source: Based on Eurostat data.
(1) Quarterly percentage changes. The data for the third quarter of 2024 are preliminary estimates released
on 30 October.
Figure 4
Price-to-book ratio of listed banks (1)
1.5 1.5
1.0 1.0
0.5 0.5
0.0 0.0
2016 2018 2020 2022 2024
Italy France Spain Germany United States
Source: LSEG.
(1) The data refer to the banks included in the Datastream Banks indices of the countries in the key.
Figure 5
Financial assets of banks and non-bank financial intermediaries
(per cent of GDP)
(a) World (1) (b) Euro area (c) Italy
500 500
400 400
300 300
200 200
100 100
0 0
2008 2012 2016 2020 2008 2012 2016 2020 2008 2012 2016 2020
Banks Non-bank financial intermediaries
Source: Based on FSB data.
(1) FSB sample, which includes the 21 largest world economies and the euro area as a whole.
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