European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said Wednesday that the Bank of Italy should hold and manage its gold reserves when asked about a draft provision stating that those reserves belong to the State.
An amendment to the government's 2026 budget bill, signed by the Senate whip for Premier Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, says the reserves "belong to the State, on behalf of the Italian people".
In an opinion sent to the Italian Economy and Finance Ministry (MEF) on Tuesday and published on its website on Wednesday, the ECB said the reason for the provision was not clear and called for it to be reconsidered.
"This is not a trivial issue, because Italy is the third largest holder of gold among the central banks," Lagarde said in response to a question by Italian MEP Pasquale Tridico of the leftist populist 5-Star Movement (M5S).
"The treaty states very clearly that the holding and management of reserves belongs to the national central bank of each member state, and the Bank of Italy is no different from any other national central bank or any other member state.
