. this brings me to another risk that needs to be addressed : greenwashing. this requires a detailed and shared definition of global and european standards, which we are focusing on and working towards. public debt as i mentioned earlier, italian households entrust a not insignificant share of their wealth to the state by buying public debt securities. like any good debtor, a sovereign issuer also has a duty to make good use of this money and to return it as and when agreed. however, unlike private borrowers, a government must not only repay its loans. the protection and efficient use of consumer savings require economic policies that ensure balanced financial conditions, smooth out cyclical fluctuations in the economy and improve its growth potential. for highly indebted countries, reducing the debt - to - gdp ratio is a priority : excessive debt relative to growth potential reduces the scope for countercyclical policies, exposes the economy to market stress and raises costs for the government, and ultimately for households and firms. in 2022, the debt - to - gdp ratio in italy was 141. 7 per cent, the highest in the european union after greece, although we cannot overlook the significant reduction following a sharp increase during the pandemic : almost 15 of the more than 20 points of increase recorded in 2020 – over half of which due to the mechanical effect of the denominator – will have been absorbed by the end of 2023. however, the government only expects a marginal decline over the next three years, with debt projected to amount to just under 140 per cent of gdp in 2026. subsequently, if no action is taken, the ratio risks increasing. looking ahead, the average cost of debt is set to return to higher levels than the economy ’ s nominal growth rate and the impact of population ageing on social spending will become more significant. in the 20 years preceding the pandemic, the gap between the average cost of debt and the growth rate was constantly unfavourable, averaging almost two percentage points. the deep recession that hit italy in 2020 led to it reaching a value close to ten points. on the other hand, the subsequent two years saw exceptionally favourable values for this indicator, as a result of the post - pandemic recovery and, in part, of the strong growth in the gdp deflator : nominal gdp growth was on average more than five percentage points higher than the average cost of debt per year. according to the update to the economic and financial document published at the

2023 - 2024. cities for financial empowerment fund : bank on https : / / joinbankon. org / wp - content / uploads / 2020 / 10 / bank - on - national - accountstandards - 2021 - 2022. pdf. bank on accounts. bank on https : / / joinbankon. org / accounts / and the bank on national data hub : findings from 2021 ( 2022 ). federal reserve bank of st. louis. https : / / www. stlouisfed. org / community - development / bank - on - national - data - hub / bank - on - report2021. - 14 - in addition to considering customer preference, product design should help to counter, not lean into, biases that can lead to poor financial decision - making. 34 being aware of these can help banks help customers better understand risks and structure products that are designed to overcome, and not exacerbate, these problems. for instance, banks should ensure that their overdraft policies frame financial decisions in a transparent and fair way and avoid unexpected and hefty fees. 35 customers should be empowered with timely information on balances so that they can avoid inadvertent overdrafts, and best practice builds in a grace period for customers to cure their overdrafts. some banks have eliminated overdraft fees entirely. regulators need to understand both human decision - making and market context in designing the right rules of the road. regulators also need to engage with techniques, such as cash flow underwriting and alternative data, new credit models, and other technologies that hold out the promise to increase access and reduce bias in credit intermediation. 36 diversity in the workforce of financial institutions also matters for financial inclusion. for instance, working with minority loan officers improves credit access for minority borrowers, which suggests that underrepresentation of minorities among loan officers adversely impacts minority access to credit. 37 and we regulators need to focus on our own diversity as well. see barr, mullainathan & shafir ( 2012 ). see, e. g., consumer compliance supervision bulletin, july 2018. board of governors of the federal reserve system https : / / www. federalreserve. gov / publications / files / 201807 - consumercompliance - supervision - bulletin. pdf. see, e. g., evans & pence ( 2021 ). see frame, huang, mayer & sun