PRESS REALEASE

Rome, 09th June 2010



Banca d’Italia, Consob, Covip, Isvap and the Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato have signed today a Protocol of agreement on financial education in order to promote and create joint initiatives, reinforce existing reciprocal cooperation instruments and coordinate future activities.

The agreement among these five Authorities was inspired by the recognition of financial education as a critical element in providing effective protection for users of banking, financial, retirement and insurance services and by the conviction that financial stability and society at large can only benefit from the wider diffusion of financial knowledge.

The first initiative being implemented by these Authorities through the joint Protocol is the creation of a common web portal for presenting, promoting and developing educational and technical support materials that already exist.

The text of the Protocol, which can be viewed on the respective websites of the five partner Authorities (Banca d’Italia: www.bancaditalia.it; Consob: www.consob.it; Covip: www.covip.it; Isvap: www.isvap.it; Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato: www.agcm AGCM.it), has also been provided as an attachment to this press release.