Il Sole 24 Ore reports that there is a decrease in financial institutions in Italy. The source is a study by the ECB, which attests that as many as 40 credit institutions or brands have ceased trading over the past 12 months.
The monetary financial institutions that closed their doors from 1 January 2012 to 1 January 2013 are actually 55, but the figure, net of 15 money market funds which are included in the national list in addition to the Bank of Italy and 3 others financial institutions, actually stands at forty units.
"In percentage terms - writes Maximilian Cellino, a journalist with Il Sole 24 Ore - in the last 12 months Italy has experienced a 7% reduction in financial institutions, i.e. commercial banks, savings banks, post offices with banking and cooperative functions in the credit. This is not a new phenomenon, nor limited to our country alone: at European level the number of MFIs went from 7.533 to 7.059 units in 2012, therefore with a contraction of 6,3%.”
Luxembourg suffered the most from the contraction, with 124 fewer institutions, France (105), Slovakia, which lost 30% of its market.
Compared to 1 January 1999, the launch date of the euro, almost 2.800 banks were missing (-28,4%) in the Eurozone and 220 in Italy, even if at the continental level the drastic reduction was also influenced by mere regulatory issues: in 2011 the ECB changed the definition of monetary funds to bring it closer to that provided by the supervisory authorities, and this ended up creating a significant exit from the list of these entities, especially in France and Luxembourg.
In Italy, where the number of money market funds is limited (they were 12 at the end of December, they became 14 with the entry of Acomea Liquidità and Ubi Pramerica Euro Cash in the first 3 weeks of January), the reduction in the number of entities authorized to carry out banking functions is primarily linked to the mergers and restructurings that have taken place above all in the last decade. Examples are the Casse di Risparmio di Città di Castello, Foligno, Terni and Narni, now united under the brand Casse di Risparmio dell'Umbria under the "hat" of the Intesa Sanpaolo group. Or the same Banca della Valsassina, whose branches continue to be present and operate regularly on the eastern shore of Lake Como, but have removed the words "Credito cooperativo" from the name after the merger by incorporation into the Banca di Credito cooperativo di Cremeno which took place on last october. Signs of a financial system in constant flux, which is trying to reorganize its forces in the best possible way to avoid the crisis.
