Vincenzo Alfonso Visco (; born 18 March 1942) is an Italian politician and economist who has served as a government minister.

Biography

Visco gained an MSc in Economics at the

University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public Collegiate university, collegiate research university in York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thir ...

in 1969 and was awarded an honorary degree in 2004. Visco was elected to the

Italian Parliament The Italian Parliament () is the national parliament of the Italy, Italian Republic. It is the representative body of Italian citizens and is the successor to the Parliament of the Kingdom of Sardinia (1848–1861), the Parliament of the Kingd ...

in 1983 for the ''Sinistra Indipendente'' group, joining the

Democratic Party of the Left The Democratic Party of the Left (, PDS) was a democratic-socialist and social-democratic political party in Italy. Founded in February 1991 as the post-communist evolution of the Italian Communist Party, the party was the largest in the A ...

in 1991, the

Democrats of the Left The Democrats of the Left (, DS) was a social-democratic political party in Italy. Positioned on the centre-left, the DS, successor of the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS) and the Italian Communist Party, was formed in 1998 upon the merger ...

in 1998 and the Democratic Party in 2007. He served as

Italian Minister of Finance This is a list of Italian ministers of finance, from 1861 to present. List of ministers of finance Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946) ;Parties: *1861–1912: ** ** *1914–1922: ** ** ** ** ** *1922–1943: ** *1943–1946: ** ** ** ** ;Coalitions * ...

for a few days in 1993 and then again from 1996 to 2000 and Treasury Minister from 2000 to 2001. He returned to government in 2006 as Vice-Minister of Economy, a role in which he courted controversy. He was accused of using his political influence to benefit

Unipol Unipol Assicurazioni S.p.A. is an Italian financial services holding company operating in the insurance and banking fields with headquarters in the Unipol Tower, Bologna. As of 2009 it was ranked as the country's fourth-largest insurer. The com ...

in a bank takeover, although he was cleared of any illegal activity. He also hit the headlines in this role when he described the country's debt as "a disaster". One of his final acts in this role was to publish the tax details of every Italian citizen for 2005 in a move he described as 'an act of transparency, of democracy, similar to what happens elsewhere in the world'.

References

1942 births Living people Ministers of finance of Italy Italian economists People from Foggia Alumni of the University of York Academic staff of the Sapienza University of Rome Democrats of the Left politicians Democratic Party of the Left politicians {{Italy-politician-DemocraticPartyItaly-stub