Consob has published the report on Italian households’ investment choices for the year 2021.
This report provides evidence on the financial knowledge, attitudes and investment choices of Italian financial decision-makers, also in order to capture any attention profiles that may result for the protection of investors.
Starting from the observed gap, mainly in terms of cost and speed, between domestic and cross-border retail payments in Europe, this paper focuses on the opportunities that a multi-currency technical platform may offer in bridging this gap.
The paper describes a three-layer model for the processing of cross-currency payments in a multi-currency clearing and settlement mechanism. Within this framework, different possible ways to handle the main elements of a cross-currency transaction (i.e. the determination of the applicable exchange rate for a given transaction, the way to apply the agreed exchange rate and the settlement model) are identified and described. A methodology for assessing and comparing the different models identified for the three processing layers is also provided.
Against this background, the paper concludes by providing a number of considerations of policy, business, technical, operational and legal nature to be taken into due account in the finalization of the ongoing analysis for the provision of a cross-currency instant payment settlement in TIPS ( TARGET Instant Payment Settlement), and its potential applicability in the broader context of cross-border payments between different technical platforms.
