His father, Fabio (1911–2012), whom he did not meet until after the war in 1945, was a teacher and later became a senior executive at the insurance company Assicurazioni Generali.

In 1980 he became a member of the influential Washington-based financial advisory body, the Group of Thirty and remained one till his death.

[5] Padoa-Schioppa died on 18 December 2010, aged 70, after suffering a fatal heart attack during a dinner he had organized in Rome.

[3] In 2006, Padoa-Schioppa coined the expression "il tesoretto" (the little treasure) to describe the increased government revenues under his administration.

[6] Newspapers received numerous letters from readers personally taking offence and pointing out that he understood little about the situation of a considerable part of the 20–30 years old Italian population, who live on approximately €1,000 per month and cannot afford to leave their parents' house.

These were gradually eliminated through the Single Market programme and the liberalization of capital movements so that by the late 1980s one of the two remaining objectives had to go to for consistency to be maintained.

The Delors Report of April 1989 endorsed this view and recommended a European Monetary Union (EMU) with a single currency.