submitted to the bank of italy. of course this in no way means that machines will replace the'judges ', but we believe that it can improve the assistance given to the panel members in making decisions. let's see what comes out of the debate, also regarding the risks of potential errors or even biases in decisions that are partly automated. lastly, another very important topic is the connection between the work done by adr systems and the work assigned to the supervisory authorities for consumer protection. it will be interesting to understand and see how adr systems can help to strengthen the wealth of data available to the sectoral supervisory authorities when carrying out their supervisory functions. i think some useful ideas will emerge here that we can discuss together. we see the ombudsman ( together with the managing of customer complaints ) as a very important part of consumer protection, flanked by supervision ( in both its regulatory aspects and its interventions ), and by financial education : dialogue between these three different functions is fundamental. international debate can be useful in identifying good practices in this area too. 3 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches i hope the challenges that adr systems in the financial and insurance sectors will have to tackle will also be outlined during the upcoming debate and that we can take away some interesting ideas on the policies to be implemented. i am referring to the new aspects of customer protection to be safeguarded in relation to the development of new fintech operators and smart contracts, the relationship between individual and class actions, the regulation of an ecosystem that hosts different types of adr, the growth of cross - border complaints and the integration of the access channels of the various adr systems borrowing from some exemplary international experiences. it only remains for me to'formally'open the conference, and to greet and thank all the participants. the floor now goes to the general counsel of the bank of italy : marino perassi. thank you all 4 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches

from digitalization, and pursuing an international dialogue will be fundamental ( especially via the fin - net network of the european commission that connects the adr systems operating in the banking, financial and insurance sectors and is therefore an important forum for cross - border discussions ). the evolution underway also requires discussion between all the national competent authorities, at both national level, thanks to the coordination board at the ministry of economic development and, as we said before, in international fora too. 2 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches dialogue between adr and the civil justice system is also very important ( in italy there has long been a successful collaboration with the scuola superiore della magistratura, which i truly believe could be interesting at international level too ). a comparison of various adr systems in terms of structure, operations and customer care, but also of functions could provide some interesting insights. the international situation increasingly shows that adr entities perform important functions ( apart from resolving individual disputes ) : consultancy, financial education, data aggregation and putting pressure on the market. given the changes in the ecosystem, it is also interesting to understand if and how these functions have evolved. we are always on the lookout for new insights and trends arising from international debate and are ready to intercept potential best practices to provide us with inspiration ( subject, of course, to internal regulatory constraints ). we also firmly believe in the exchanging of experiences ( which now that the pandemic has eased, we have an opportunity to promote ). the delicate topic of the effectiveness of adr systems ( a quality requirement set by the adr directive ) is particularly interesting. it will also be fascinating to see what is surfacing from the latest academic debate on this and to understand how leveraging technology, especially artificial intelligence applied to alternative dispute resolution systems, could help to improve their effectiveness. the abf has made ample use of technology since it was founded : its procedures are completely digitalized, and it has had a portal since 2018 that allows people to communicate with the system online ; work is underway to open the portal to intermediaries as well to make the procedures even more efficient. the bank of italy is experimenting with the use of artificial intelligence at the abf : work is underway on the abeftech project that aims to apply machine learning and text analysis techniques to help with the work of the banking and financial ombudsman ; this project follows a similar ai tool ( called esptech ) already implemented for managing the complaints