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,

, also contributed positively to the increase in gross profit, rising by €0. 2 billion on 2018 to €9. 6 billion. operating expenses declined by about 1 per cent, reflecting in part lower depreciation. although there were minor internal changes in composition, staff costs and administrative expenses remained essentially unchanged. in order to cope with the risks to which the bank is exposed, financial buffers were increased by transferring to the general risk provision the same banca d ’ italia address by governor ordinary general meeting of shareholders amount as the year before ( €1. 5 billion ), without affecting the statutory reserves. taxes for the year amounted to about €1 billion, similar to the figure recorded in 2018 ( €1. 2 billion ). the bank ’ s human resource policies are contributing to a generational turnover that is reflected in a gradual decline in the staff ’ s average age, which was 48. 3 years at the end of the year. women now represent a larger proportion of total staff, rising from 36 to 38 per cent over the last five years. these staff - related initiatives flank those to reorganize the bank ’ s structure in order to make the performance of its institutional activities at the service of the public more effective, and to adapt its working practices to developments at national and european level. in relation to this, in july 2019, the statistics function was reorganized to improve the quality of the data produced by the bank, to make production processes more efficient, and to further develop the methodologies used. in early 2020, the powers of the financial intelligence unit for italy ( uif ) were enhanced by strengthening its inspection and sanctioning functions. two more organizational changes were also made ; the first was to strengthen the bank ’ s consumer protection and financial education functions by transferring their activities to a new directorate general ; the second was to integrate traditional retail payment services and highly technological and innovative payment services within a single directorate general. as usual, further information on the activities of the bank and on the organizational and management measures implemented in 2019 is available in the report on operations and activities of the bank of italy, which will be published in may, on the occasion of the presentation of the annual report. proposal for the allocation of the net profit shareholders, pursuant to article 38 of the statute, acting on a proposal of the governing board and after hearing the opinion of the board of auditors, i present for your approval the board of directors ’ proposal for the allocation of the net profit.