banks. 3 the rationale behind this reform was, among other things, to avoid new forms of potential regulatory arbitrage stemming from the differences in the regulatory frameworks for institutions with similar types of business. a related area is that of crypto - assets. their financial stability implications are currently limited given the size of the market, as observed by the fsb report published in october. however, this assessment could change over time, as suggested by some experiences, such as the very large swings in their prices, the very rapid expansion in some countries of initial coin offerings, 4 the growth of crypto - asset exchanges, and the emergence of crypto - asset funds, futures and similar financial products. wider use and greater interconnectedness with the core financial system could pose financial stability risks if they occurred without material improvements in the resilience of crypto - asset markets. to support a timely identification of emerging financial stability risks and to explore the possible policy options to pre - empt the build - up of risk and to ring - fence the financial system if risks from crypto - assets become significant, a strengthening of the analysis of the crypto - asset market structure is necessary. yet the challenges that are facing us today are not only about dealing with the new risks ( and opportunities ) of financial innovation. after the intense, prolonged reform effort, we need to ensure that the new framework is effectively implemented, thereby providing regulatory certainty and stability so that the financial system can operate in support of economic growth. the reform is based on legislative decree 141 / 2010, which amended the tub ( consolidated law on banking ) ; it was completed by ministerial decree 53 / 2015, which identified the activities subject to reserve. supervisory regulations for financial intermediaries and groups of financial intermediaries are set out in banca d ’ italia circular no. 288 of 3 april 2015. initial coin offerings ( icos ) are public offerings of crypto - assets in exchange for sovereign fiat currencies or popular private crypto - currencies ( e. g. bitcoin ) through which companies raise capital to fund the early stage development of projects or businesses. icos are conceptually analogous to initial public offerings for stocks. a key issue concerns the need for consistent implementation by all jurisdictions, in order to prevent fragmentation of the financial system. in principle, rules commonly agreed upon by the fsb and the basel committee on banking supervision ( bcbs ) should lead to a more stable and resilient financial

march 2022 2 review, the ecb has highlighted that “ the preparation of monetary policy deliberations will be enhanced with additional information on financial stability considerations. ” while macroprudential policies are and will remain the first line of defence against financial stability risks, we aim at basing our monetary policy decisions on a more systematic assessment of the risks to output and inflation created by the accumulation of financial vulnerabilities, of the extent to which macroprudential measures can mitigate these risks, and of the design features of monetary policy tools that minimise side effects on the financial sector. taking proper account of these financial stability considerations will require the contribution of research along two main dimensions. first, further progress is necessary on the development of macro - financial models capable of underpinning the joint analysis of monetary and macroprudential policies. the global financial crisis of 2007 – 08 spurred a vast research agenda on macro - financial linkages, providing us with new analytical tools to calibrate macroprudential measures and to evaluate their impact. work in this direction should be expanded to build integrated frameworks for the assessment of the 1 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches trade - offs and complementarities between price stability and financial stability over different time horizons, and of the interactions between monetary policy and macroprudential policy. we need to better understand, in particular, the nonlinearities associated with episodes of financial instability, the potential lack of synchronicity between the real business cycle and the typically longer financial cycle, and the extent to which each policy influences the effectiveness of the other. second, we have to expand our knowledge of the impact of monetary policy on the non - bank financial intermediation sector. the share of financial intermediation performed by non - banks has risen sharply over the last few decades at a global level. on one hand, these institutions are increasingly becoming an important channel for the transmission of monetary policy during normal times. on the other hand, they could also seriously threaten its functioning in situations of stress, requiring central banks to turn to extraordinary ( direct or indirect ) interventions, such as those that were implemented in march 2020. non - bank financial intermediaries are not currently subject to a macroprudential framework, nor have explicit access to central bank facilities. understanding how monetary policy measures may affect their behaviour is therefore particularly relevant from a financial stability perspective. several other important issues should also be better investigated. as the balance sheets of banks and non -