richter ( 2023 ). conference paper boissay, collard, gali, and manea ( 2023 ). conference paper bosshardt, kakhbod, and saidi ( 2023 ). conference papers hinzen ( 2023 ) and giannetti, jotikasthira, rapp, and waibel ( 2023 ). see the speech by luigi federico signorini, senior deputy governor of the bank of italy, at the 54th credit day, rome, 3 november 2022. on households, firms and output is enormous, and we therefore need to understand each and every aspect of this transformation. 9 • while initial concerns focused on how fintech companies could disrupt traditional financial institutions, evidence suggests that banks have adapted to the new technologies and some have even acquired fintech firms. still, traditional institutions should continue to innovate in the provision of financial services to guard from other challenges in this field, like those that could come from bigtech companies that can leverage on the combination of a large amount of customer data and advanced technologies. 10 • i therefore view the presentations we will hear on the uses and benefits of big data for banks as extremely timely. the papers we will discuss today give us a sense of the surplus created by such technologies for borrowers and lenders, and of the scope for technology adoption by banks. this type of research helps regulators and policymakers understand how the ongoing wave of innovations could affect the credit market structure. 11 • in turn, policymakers find themselves having to keep pace with innovation in the financial sector. during the course of the conference, we will hear about how supervisors can take advantage of similar innovations – a phenomenon known as suptech – and what results they can expect. 12 climate risk • the conference also touches upon the financial sector risks associated with climate change, one of the key policy challenges of our times. the transition to a net - zero carbon emission economy requires the introduction of financial disincentives for the use of fossil fuels and the adoption of environmentally sustainable technologies. an effective environmental policy and a sound financial sector go hand - in - hand to recent works by researchers at the bank of italy point to how digitalization was instrumental in the resilience demonstrated by the italian economy during the pandemic and how it correlates to better bank performance ( see branzoli, rainone, supino, 2024 ). the bank of italy also follows this theme closely through different initiatives aimed

overlooking the legal responsibilities of supervisors and their particular concerns, follows or rather adjusts its methods to some extent to the management methods of banking groups. past are the days that a supervisory authority monitored a few simplistic types of credit. nowadays, banks provide different forms of credit with many more risks than before and invest in complex products which required very strong internal control mechanisms that previously did not exist. in addition, basel ii highlighted the need for the enhancement of cooperation between home and host supervisors. the bank of greece, as a supervisor involved in the supervision of consolidated banking groups, has already organized a “ college of supervisors ” among the supervisors of the neighboring countries in order to accommodate their particular interests in the basel ii implementation process and we exchange views regularly on the situation of banks with cross - border business. gradually a common supervisory culture will have to be established. i have already mentioned the expansion of greek banks in the neighboring countries since the early 90s with the result that that greek banks ’ share in the banking sector of our neighbors is now around 20 %. although the presence of greek banks is not limited to the wider region, it is in this area that it is most important in terms of both size and local market share. they have some 1200 branches with a total number of employees over 16000 in south east europe and, if we include some other countries, primarily cyprus and turkey, the number is close to 27000 ; these are significant numbers for a region which is underbanked. in around 8 years time, may be up to one - half of the profits of certain large greek banks will be derived from their operations abroad and the rank of the greek banks in the list of the european banks will continue to improve. all four major private greek banking groups have been engaged in recent acquisitions abroad. efg eurobank ergasias sa acquired turkey ’ s tekfenbank as in may and bought a ukrainian lender in july. it is also opening branches in poland. alpha bank sa is also looking at countries of the wider region where it has not yet a presence. piraeus bank sa bought the egyptian commercial bank last year, the first greek banking purchase in the arab world ’ s most - populous nation. but the most significant acquisition is that of the national bank of greece which bought a controlling stake in turkey ’ s finansbank as. that is the biggest takeover ever by a greek company outside its home market. furthermore, the nbg also expanded its presence in serbia acquiring