National Conference

The fifth edition of the annual National Conference on the Italian banking system sought to offer a forum for a wide-ranging discussion with a view to giving the participants the opportunity to reflect on the consequences of developments in the banking sector on the economy and society. In this regard, banks were acknowledged as the very lifeblood of economies, linking those who save with those who invest.

Digital technology is no longer an option but an established fact throughout the world. It closed the gap between present and future, creating a conversation between today and tomorrow. So it is crucially important to be able to manage the latest technologies in order to predict and build the future. The “cloud” we inhabit as both consumers and producers of digital data – twenty-first century black gold – offers major economic and social opportunities.

The baseline for discussions at this National Conference on digital innovation was that amid opportunities and stumbling blocks, the digital ecosystem is blazing a trail of profound change. The development and spread of new technologies was characterized as constituting an out-and-out revolution, from which no aspect of society is immune, whether it be the media, business, social life, the workplace, the organization of cities, or the public administration.

Serving as a springboard for discussions at this national conference was the acknowledgement that family-run businesses are a key player in the European economic landscape. However, the crisis (or more precisely, the sea change) of recent years poses multifaceted and complex questions: businesses are facing changes in where they operate, what kind of business they do, their culture, and how they do business. These questions must be answered with pragmatism, a typically entrepreneurial trait, and with reflection, more the domain of academia.

Discussions at this national conference began with recognition that, in a globalized economy where the standardization of consumption risks reducing competition between companies to a simple price war, a firm’s culture becomes a key selling point. In this regard, culture was interpreted in its broadest sense, as an amalgam of values, knowhow, and traditions handed down from generation to generation and which helps to shape the uniqueness of a given local area and the identity of a particular company.

The focus of this fourth edition of the annual National Conference on the Italian banking system was the future of a sector being squeezed between, on the one hand, a veritable regulatory deluge that has contributed to reduced profit margins, and, on the other, new competitors from associated sectors that already existed (shadow banking) or are entirely new (fintech), which threaten business that has always been the preserve of the banks.