at interacting with private operators directly, including : the fintech channel, the point of contact through which operators can dialogue easily and informally with the bank of italy, presenting innovative projects and technological solutions ; the milano hub, the innovation centre supporting the digital evolution of the financial market and encouraging talent attraction and investment ; and the regulatory sandbox, which allows supervised entities to test innovative products and services in the banking, financial and insurance sectors for a limited period ( see fintech channel, the milano hub and the regulatory sandbox ). see ‘ economic developments and monetary policy in the euro area, ’ speech by fabio panetta, governor of the bank of italy, at the 30th assiom forex congress, genoa, 10 february 2024, and the lectio magistralis on ‘ digital innovation : challenges and opportunities for central banks ( only in italian ), ’ by alessandra perrazzelli, deputy governor of the bank of italy, before the italian association of financial analysts and consultants ( aiaf ), milan, 15 june 2023. the conference paper yin ( 2022 ). the conference paper degryse, huylebroek, and van doornik ( 2024 ) ( mimeo ). encourage green investments across all sectors, including brown energy - intensive ones, which must reduce their environmental footprint. 13 • economists have been investigating the interplay between environmental policy, credit supply and green investments14 and, more broadly, the repercussions of climate change for the economic and financial systems. 15 as a contribution to this avenue of research, i find empirical analyses on the pricing of transition risk by financial markets in reaction to large - scale environmental policies to be very interesting. they shed light on the interplay between governmental policies, investors ’ willingness to finance the green transition and financial stability. 16 safe assets • last but not least, this conference touches on the key theme of the provision, role, and effects of safe assets in financial markets. such issues are particularly important in the euro area, where the absence of a european safe asset might hamper the development of a liquid, diversified, and resilient capital markets union. 17 • the contributions offered during this conference should help us better understand two specific issues related to safe assets. first, we will discuss the potential financial stability implications of crowding out private safe asset creation through public safe asset supply. 18 second, we will also dig deeper into how satisfying demand for safety leads to long intermediation chains,

we will discuss today and tomorrow tackle some of these important issues, from very different perspectives. • in particular, over the course of these two days, we will hear about the ongoing secular changes in bank business models – driven, among other things, by the progressive reduction in the number of bank branches and by the decline in the ratio of loans to total assets – and about the consequences of these changes for financial stability, macroprudential policy, and financial regulation. 3 • we will delve into the relationship between monetary policy rate changes, maturity mismatch, and financial stability. we will also be presented with evidence from historical data, which offer us new insights into when monetary policy changes could pose concrete risks to financial stability, 4 and we will hear suggestions for better policy design through the lenses of rigorous macroeconomic models. 5 • we will look at the interaction between liquidity regulation and risk - taking by banks, which is paramount for overcoming the weaknesses in the regulatory architecture that were underscored by the 2023 distress, 6 and we will begin to scratch the surface of financial intermediation by non - bank financial institutions, 7 which we need to understand in order to improve our regulatory and policy frameworks. 8 digitalization • another very current issue we will see covered in the programme is the growing digitalization of nearly every aspect of banks ’ business models, a development that offers opportunities while posing challenges. the potential impact of digitalization over recent years the bank of italy has been studying ways to further strengthen the crisis management framework and make it more effective, for example through an orderly liquidation framework for smaller banks, in line with the imf recommendations ( see de aldisio, aloia, bentivegna, gagliano, giorgiantonio, lanfranchi, maltese, august 2019, ‘ towards a framework for orderly liquidation of banks in the eu, ’ banca d ’ italia, notes on financial stability and supervision, 15, and imf staff, july 2018, ‘ euro area policies : financial sector assessment program – technical note – bank resolution and crisis management, ’ imf, country report ). these topics are covered by the keynote speeches by prof. strahan and prof. seru, as well as by the conference papers by benmelech, yang, and zator ( 2023 ) and kundu, muir, and zhang ( 2024 ) ( mimeo ). conference paper jimenez, kushinov, peydro, and