From the 1980s onwards the banking sectors in all the industrialised countries have been experiencing intense restructuring, aggregation and consolidation, radically changing their ownership structures and geography. Whatever the reasons behind such restructuring processes, the globalisation of...

This paper aims to analyze the effects of Italian banking consolidation during the nineties on the efficiency of the financial system, on competition in the market forbanking and financial services, and on the reallocation of bank ownership. Whereas a review of the recent theoretical and...