The Italian economic culture over the last 150 years has considered banks not merely as financial intermediaries, but as a key factor of economic development in which, thanks to their professional reliability, they have given a fundamental contribution to real growth

A new book investigates the relationship between banks and the Italian economy over the last 150 years.The analysis is focused on the economic and financial linkages and on the banks entrepreneurial role in four different periods, pointing out the strengths of the banking industry in recent...

To celebrate the 150th anniversary of Italian Unification and to contribute to the debate under way on the national history, ABI has launched a research project to analyze the linkages between the society, the economy and the action of Italian banks. The research has been published by Bancaria...

In this paper a particular multicriteria decision aid approach is used in order to evaluate the creditworthiness of a set of about 14,000 Italian firms viewed as potential applicants for bank loans in the 2006-2008 period. The methodology is able to consider simultaneously all factors affecting...

The history of relations between the Italian banking industry and the State during the last 150 years from National Unification has affected the stability of deposits and credit flows, the effectiveness of investment choices. In carrying out these functions, banks have played an entrepreneurial...

Hamburg as a Site of Private Full-service/ Major Banks in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries: The Hamburg banking sector experienced considerable structural changes in the period from 1850 until into the 1930s. Around 1856 and 1870, a large number of new banks were founded, mostly in the form of...

The German financial system rests on three distinct pillars - this position has been widely accepted among bank historians. However, this view neglects another important pillar, namely the financial institutions under the rule and control of state authorities. The following article aims to...

The paper puts the outcome during the most recent financial crisis in a historical perspective by taking a closer look at the frequency of extreme events in the economic history of Denmark, in some cases based on time series back to the late 1600s. We focus on the frequency distribution of a...

Two features of the history of Hamburg as a financial centre are of particular interest from the perspective of a central bank: The estab-lishment of Hamburger Bank in 1619 as a proto-central bank and the handling of two liquidity or financial crises in the 19th century. Hamburger Bank provided...

This paper investigates the macroeconomic effects of UK banking crises over the period 1750 to 1938. We construct a new annual banking crisis series using bank failure rate data, which suggests that the incidence of banking crises was every 32 years. Using our new series and a narrative approach...