By March 31, all Italian banks had to submit their climate and environmental risk action plans to the Bank of Italy. The requirement affected both "non-significant" institutions (i.e. those monitored directly by the Bank of Italy) and non-bank intermediaries (i.e. those active in factoring, leasing, consumer finance, payments and asset management). Large banks supervised by the ECB, on the other hand, had to provide the regulator with a second update, following the first plan prepared in 2021 and the subsequent update last year. The exercise was conducted on the basis of self-assessment questionnaires filled out by intermediaries, with requests for documentation to support the information received, and then verified by the Bank of Italy. The objective was to assess the soundness and completeness of the institutions' main policies and procedures, as well as their ability to effectively target strategies related to climate and environmental risks. Climate risk remains a hot front for the ECB, the European supervisory body. Just last year Frankfurt held the first stress test expressly dedicated to this issue. Under the lens in that case were 104 credit institutions that, according to the Eurotower, could have suffered losses of at least 70 billion euros in the event of a rise in the average global temperature. "Eurozone banks must with extreme urgency step up their efforts to measure and manage climate risks. By addressing a number of shortcomings and adopting the good practices already in the industry," Andrea Enria, head of banking supervision at the ECB, had said.