Italian politicians were involved in a tense exchange last month over four derivatives trades between the Dipartimento del Tesoro – the country’s debt office – and Morgan Stanley, which were terminated by the US bank in January, forcing Italy to pay out €2.567 billion.

That was a unique situation, according to Italian education undersecretary Marco Rossi Doria, whose remarks were published in parliamentary transcripts on March 15. He said the trades contained alternative termination event (ATE)