A Survey of the Banks Property Schemes in Italy and Their Correlation with the Business Activity: a View of the Cathedral

Abstract

The Italian banking system, largely controlled by the State during the Twentieth century, has been privatised during the Nineties. While during the State ownership a number of different types of legal bodies was active in banking, each type carrying limitations to the scope of the business, the new laws allowed only corporations to perform banking, and the adoption of the universal banking model. We will examine the various ownership schemes of a bank currently possible under the Italian law, each of whom has an impact on the actual management and, thus, on the results of the bank. The flaws of the generally adopted universal banking model forced the community to reassess the received wisdom on the bank activity. This paper suggests one among the possible solutions: to limit the universal banking to selected subjects and allocate the various kinds of banking functions among different ownership schemes.