In connection with the press release n. 192 issued today regarding "THE NEW MANAGEMENT OF THE LIQUIDITY AVAILABLE ON THE TREASURY ACCOUNT" it is hereby specified that the reform is merely a technical requirement envisaged and previously planned within the framework of article 47 of Law n. 196 of 2009 governing the management of the liquidity held in the Treasury account.
In practical terms, the normative obliged the Treasury to manage excess liquidity in the Treasury account held at Banca d'Italia in line with the directives of the European Central Bank and as already occurring in other Euro Area countries.
This initiative should not be connected to what the European Central Bank communicated today, and is not an expression of changes carried out by the Treasury to its debt management strategy.
OPTES operations
OPTES operations become fully operational following the earliest operations launched by the Treasury already in April 2007 and the last phase of the experimentation in September of this year. Operations within OPTES ("Operazioni per conto del Tesoro") were designed to maximise flexibility in the management of cash funds within the Treasury. Improved account balance forecasts within the liquidity account, combined with an intensified information exchange between MEF and Banca d'Italia, will contribute to improve the management of the cash available at the Ministry.
Further information regarding the management of liquidity at the Treasury is available at:
http://www.dt.tesoro.it/en/debito_pubblico -collegamento a sito esterno