ROME, March 12 (Reuters) - Monitoring lending by Italian banks is the job of the Bank of Italy and not government prefects, despite a regulation giving them powers to oversee lending, the governor of the Bank of Italy said.
In a letter to the regional heads of the Bank of Italy obtained by Reuters on Thursday, Mario Draghi said that local government prefects did not have the right to ask for information directly from banks, and should seek the data via the central bank. (Reporting by Paolo Biondi)