Bank of Italy, from the pandemic to job loss: Visco’s words

“The pandemic has had a very high cost in terms of human lives all over the world”. This was underlined by the governor of the Bank of Italy Ignazio Visco at the opening of the Final Considerations on 2020, recalling that “on the economic level, the recession that has ensued is the most serious since the end of the Second World War” with a drop in global GDP in 2020 equal to 3.3 per cent, even if “with heterogeneous effects between geographic areas, production sectors, businesses and families”. “Its containment has required restrictions on individual freedoms and has profoundly conditioned everyone’s life. For many it has resulted in the loss of employment; it has changed interpersonal relationships, the methods of study, production and work, of employment free time”. “Even wider, almost 9 per cent, was the fall in international trade, characterized by a temporary interruption of production chains, which was associated with a sharp decline in tourist flows”, Visco recalls, who highlights how “the loss of employment has young people, women and precarious workers are hit more markedly “. “The intensity and speed with which the pandemic hit the world population were exceptional” and “the human, social and economic costs were, still are, profound” but “just as rapid and intense was the response of those who operates in health structures, in public and private research, in the pharmaceutical industry “. Inequalities” And of extraordinary magnitude, at all latitudes, were the interventions of public budgets and monetary policy measures. The pandemic crisis did not happen turned into a financial crisis “and” there was no shortage of humanitarian aid for the most vulnerable countries “. In addition, Visco said, “governments have aimed to alleviate the suffering of the weakest sections of the population, counteracting the increase in inequality”. “In many countries, especially in advanced ones and also in Italy, after the very serious fall of the ‘last year’s production activity and income are now showing signs, in some important cases, of economic recovery “. This was stated by Ignazio Visco, governor of the Bank of Italy, in concluding his final considerations. But, he warned, “progress, on the health front as well as on the economic one, is still largely unequal”. As Governor Visco explained, “even where the results are more comforting, it is necessary to continue to exercise caution. the epidemic does not slow down and vaccination campaigns are seriously delayed, if not absent. For no one, in a highly interconnected world, the risks of the pandemic will be truly overcome until they have been for everyone “, he added. .New technologies “The need, imposed by the pandemic, to reduce personal interaction with customers has favored an acceleration in the diffusion of new technologies” but “investments in information technologies remain low”. This was highlighted by the governor of the Bank of Italy, Ignazio Visco, in the course of his Final Considerations, during which he recalled how in 2020 “online bank transfers, card transactions via the Internet, electronic payments, the share of banks that allows customers to manage loan requests remotely “.” The infrastructure renovation process – he said – must be accelerated by adapting skills and organizational structures at the same time. The banks that in the recent past have invested more in technologies for credit risk assessments have been the ones that have increased lending to businesses since the outbreak of the pandemic “. As the governor recalled,” new technologies are revolutionizing the entire value chain of the financial industry, well beyond perimeter of the banking system, with innovations that can lead to better risk measurement and management, to am plugging the audience of potential customers and achieving significant cost reductions. It is not possible to predict what the new configuration of the market will be – he added – but it is certain that even in the intermediation of credit and in the management of savings the new balance will be different from the current one “and, according to the governor,” who will not know how to prepare in advance of the change and will not adapt promptly, it will be destined to lose ground rapidly “.” Technological innovation – Governor Visco said again – is also destined to modify the offer of financing. The use of advanced creditworthiness assessment techniques is spreading, using a variety of data, including unstructured ones. Evaluations based on algorithms cannot completely replace the judgment made by analysts; adding to the qualitative information collected by intermediaries, they will however constitute an increasingly important complement, in particular for specific market niches “. Firms” The production system has faced the pandemic crisis in better conditions than those prevailing during the global financial crisis. Since then a process of selecting companies and reallocating resources has taken place, albeit with shortcomings and delays, which has led to the emergence, particularly in the manufacturing industry, of more competitive companies with a more solid financial structure “. said the governor of the Bank of Italy, Ignazio Visco, in the course of his Final Considerations. “The crisis – he said again – has led to a drastic reduction in production and revenues, with budgetary imbalances for the companies most affected by the restrictions activity, aggravating the conditions of those already fragile before the pandemic “. However, the governor explained, it was a” relevant but not general phenomenon: in 2020 the financial balance of the sector as a whole, or the difference between the change in assets and that of financial liabilities, also fueled by the support measures, was positive for 38 billion, three times that of the previous year tooth. A substantial part of the loans obtained is held by companies in deposits and other liquid assets, which can be used to finance the acceleration of production and planned investments in the coming months “.