Italy’s commercial lawyers are never short of subject material to talk about over lunch. With a new government finally installed, as well as a new governor for the Bank of Italy, there is much talk about the wave of legislation and rule-making from Messrs Prodi and Draghi respectively.
While it is too early to feel the effects of the centre-left government’s legislative change of direction, reforms have recently been passed to strengthen the banking watchdog’s powers and transform the central bank’s governance, after a year in which the former governor Antonio Fazio was forced to resign amid claims that he had blocked the purchase of Banca Antonveneta by a foreign lender, ABN AMRO.
