Italy’s banking revolution, which has been under way for more than 15 years, has entered a new and radical phase. Liberalisation, allowing bank managements new freedoms, the Amato Law, turning public-sector banks into joint stock companies, and the encouragement of privatisation brought sweeping changes to Italy’s fossilised banking system during the 1990s.
Who now remembers the tight regulation and the eagerly awaited branch plans, issued once every so often by the Bank of Italy, that authorised banks to open new branches? And who recalls those complex and secretive negotiations between the bigwigs of the governing parties to decide how the spoils of boardroom seats in Italy’s largest banks should be shared among their acolytes?
