The paper examines the long-term profitability of the Italian banking system (1965-2011), which has three interesting features: it has always been oriented to traditional intermediation; it underwent a significant process of privatization, consolidation and modernization; it proved to be very...

This paper examines the long-term profitability of the Italian banking system (1965–2012), which has three interesting features: it has always been oriented toward traditional intermediation; it underwent a significant process of privatization, consolidation and modernization; and it proved to...

We discuss whether and to what extent Italian banks will be able to support the recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic. The answer crucially depends on how the legacy of the Great Financial Crisis is evaluated. Moving from the hypothesis that the problems must be examined in the context of the...