Italy has weathered a severe economic storm over the past few years but, with the help of foreign investment, the country is now on track to regain its strength and competitiveness, writes Fabio Gallia, CEO of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti.

Massimo Mocio says the pull-back of international players from Italy has provided Banca IMI with a stronger domestic base from which to compete.

After reporting the bank’s best half-year results, Intesa Sanpaolo’s chief executive Carlo Messina is upbeat about its future in Italy, thanks to booming wealth management and life insurance businesses, and growth opportunities in some of its central and eastern European subsidiaries.

Italy's traditionally high savings rates and increasing demand for asset management are playing into the hands of domestic direct bank Fineco. Its CEO, Alessandro Foti, tells Stefanie Linhardt about his company's recent successes in the retail and private wealth management markets.

The European – and indeed global – economy is facing a crucial six months. Central to this is the European Central Bank's Comprehensive Assessment, which will go a long way to boosting confidence within the EU.

Intesa Sanpaolo's head of corporate and investment banking, Gaetano Miccichè, discusses the bank's international expansion plans and the challenges it is facing in its home Italian market thanks to a slow and underdeveloped domestic economy.

Contracting growth in Italy since the beginning of the year has dampened any optimism for good first-half results at the country’s largest banks, after record losses in 2013. Although lenders have largely cleaned up their balance sheets, the credit quality of smaller businesses remains a problem.

The first Italian initial public offering of 2014 cemented confidence in UniCredit's unusual partnership model with Kepler Cheuvreux in equity capital markets.