##10 billion, well above the level recorded two years ago. the net profit is €6. 3 billion, down by €2 billion compared with 2019. the impact of the eurosystem ’ s monetary policy on the bank of italy ’ s annual accounts in 2020, the governing council of the ecb confirmed its very accommodative monetary policy stance. the extraordinary measures concerned both refinancing operations and the monetary policy asset purchase programmes and had a significant effect not only on the size but also on the composition of the bank of italy ’ s balance sheet. besides introducing new refinancing operations to deal with the pandemic ( pandemic emergency longer - term refinancing operations, peltro ), the conditions applied to the third series of targeted longer - term refinancing operations ( tltro3 ) were made even more favourable to counterparties. overall, through these operations, the eurosystem has granted euro - area banks more than €2, 000 billion in funding since the start of the health emergency ( €415 billion to italian banks ). this year too, targeted refinancing operations will continue to play a key role in supporting banks ’ liquidity. the asset purchase programme ( app ) was strengthened by adding a temporary envelope of further asset purchases of €120 billion for 2020 to the monthly purchases of €20 billion already envisaged. the bank of italy ’ s net purchases for the year totalled €46 billion. the full reinvestment of the principal payments from maturing securities will continue for as long as necessary and in any case for an extended period of time, as the ecb governing council has announced many times and reiterated most recently on 11 march. in march 2020, we agreed to introduce a new public and private sector asset purchase programme, the pandemic emergency purchase programme ( pepp ), with an initial envelope of €750 billion, which was subsequently raised to €1, 850 billion following the increases decided in june and december 2020. the bank of italy purchased €116 billon during the year. the horizon for net purchases under the pepp was extended to at least the end of march 2022, and the horizon for the reinvestment of principal payments from maturing securities is set to continue until at least the end of 2023. at its meeting held on 11 march 2021, based on a joint assessment of financing conditions and the inflation outlook, the governing council decided

work on this task. as regards organizational arrangements, the reform initiated to consolidate supervision on the conduct of banking and financial intermediaries, strengthen customer protection tools and increase financial education levels for the public was implemented, and a new directorate general dedicated specifically to these tasks was established. furthermore, the tasks relating to monetary circulation and those regarding retail payment instruments have been integrated into a single directorate general, with an emphasis on technological developments. to support the financial system ’ s adoption of digital technologies and foster their safe use for financial stability purposes, the bank of italy has launched milano hub, its new innovation centre. the features of the eurosystem ’ s payment systems were improved during the year. in this respect, the bank acts as sole service provider for the development and management of the target instant payment settlement ( tips ) platform. the platform, which offers an innovative and safe solution for the instant settlement of retail payments, is able to increase the speed of not just payments between individuals and firms, but also those with government bodies. 4 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches as usual, further information on the activities of the bank and on the organizational and management measures implemented in 2020 will be available in the report on operations and activities of the bank of italy, to be published in may, on the occasion of the presentation of the annual report. more information on the bank ’ s commitment to the issue of environmental sustainability may be found in the yearly environment report, available on the bank ’ s website. proposal for the allocation of the net profit dear 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. on behalf of the board of directors and the governing board, i would like to take this opportunity to thank the board of auditors for their diligent and accurate work. under the dividend policy in force, the amount paid to the shareholders is kept within a range of €340 million to €380 million, provided that the net profit is sufficient and without prejudice to the bank ’ s capital adequacy. the difference between the upper limit of the range and the dividend paid to the shareholders may be allocated to the special item for stabilizing dividends, until this item reaches a maximum amount of €450 million. accordingly, from the net profit of €6, 286 million, we propose