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how the programme of internal devaluation and fiscal au-
sterity have facilitated the elimination of the pre-crisis im-
balances and how there is also a significant improvement
in the national regulatory context.
Competition and regulatory barriers
Competition is the best incubator for technologies and in-
novation. Free trade and the absence of barriers influence
a country’s competitiveness or indeed entire sectors of its
economy. The recurring international episodes of financial
instability entail the risk of protectionism and anti-com-
petitive responses. A tough policy of international coor-
dination is necessary.
Salvatore Rebecchini, member of the Italian Competition
and Markets Committee, in going over the history of eco-
nomic development and citing the example of China, un-
derlined that the system of state regulation must be revised:
«a country’s ideas must be listened to and the market must
drive companies into a process of continuous evolution. The
positive relationship between competition and growth has
been amply demonstrated by economic literature: to in-
crease productivity it is necessary to increase competition,
to increase competitiveness it is necessary to have a system
of effective but not oppressive regulation and, finally, what
is very important for growth is the link between competition
law and the result in terms of growth.»
Capital market and foreign investment
Raffaele Jerusalmi, CEO of Borsa Italiana, and therefore
the “host”, set out the numbers of Borsa Italiana and of the
London Stock Exchange, underlining that it is a particularly
positive moment for IPOs. Jerusalmi then presented the suc-
cess of the Elite programme, a platform to facilitate the en-
counter of businesses and the community of investors (pri-
vate equity, venture capital, etc.) and to create networking
and coaching. Again from Italy was the banker Roberto Ni-
castro who spoke about how in recent years the governan-
ce of Italian companies has greatly improved. This is be-
cause, according to Nicastro, many innovations have been
introduced, not limited to technology, but also in governance
itself, citing the example of the new company boards whi-
ch now have a significant female presence of around 40%.
It was then the turn of Navid Chamdia, number one at Real
Estate Investments of the Qatar Investment Authority, who
recalled that Italy accounts for 4.5% of the investments in
Europe made by the sovereign fund of Qatar Investment and
that this share is destined to rise.
«We believe strongly in
Italy,»
Chamdia said.
«A recurring issue for investments by
sovereign funds is looking for stable income or an appre-
ciation in the capital invested and with the growth of the
economy income rises; Italy is attractive for this very rea-
son. In addition, also the country’s human resources are in-
teresting, above all in the financial sector»
. Finally, Euge-
nio Sidoli, Chairman and CEO of Philip Morris Italia, spoke
about innovation and noted the case from his own sector, un-
derlining how in a market which acts on the basis of “damage
limitation”, there is constant research focussed on finding
solutions to make cigarettes increasingly less harmful.
Innovating cash management
First “technical” discussion panel regarding the changes
made to cash management. The roundtable was coordina-
ted by the IAFEI ITC Chairman Omar T. Cruz and involved
Dominique Chesneau, ITC member, Gianfranco Amoroso,
Director Finance, SNAMGroup and Richard Chenga-Reddy,
Head of Regulatory Affairs Standard, Chartered Bank.
Chesneau explained how the shadow banking system and
financial technology companies (Fintech) are now the two
sides of the new financial world. Gianfranco Amoroso in-
stead briefly set out the history of Snam which, after the se-
paration from Eni, started a major process of change in its
management. There was an optimisation process in the pe-
riod 2013-2014, through new use of the public and private
debt capital market, banking incentives and institutional
lending. Richard Chenga-Reddy, on the other hand, focus-
sed more on the impact of technologies and innovation on
the banking sector thanks to which banks have introduced
various technological innovations (Internet banking, mo-
bile banking, etc.), but have not changed in terms of their
substance. Hence the need for greater regulation and the use
of technology to support the change.
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IAFEI Quarterly | Issue 31 | 13