In this interview excerpt, Alfonso Iozzo, senior executive in the Sanpaolo banking group from 1961 to 2006, Chairman of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti in Rome from 2006 to 2008, member of the European Federalist Movement since 1963 and Vice-Chairman of the Triffin International Foundation, describes the circumstances in which he worked with Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa when Padoa-Schioppa was a Director in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs, a post that he held from 1979 to 1983. He particularly mentions the establishment of an ECU clearing system designed to facilitate trade within the European Monetary System (EMS).