It will also be true that as a result of the transformations produced in the last 15 years by an increasingly connected globalized market and by a crisis which has heavily affected families and businesses since 2007, the population of our country has gradually transformed from an ant to a cicada (just to recall a past article by Luca Ricolfi). But even in a context of a downsizing of the propensity to save compared to the past, a question that is too often overlooked or overlooked, namely that of the danger that the wealth of Italians could end up in foreign hands, is still urgently topical.
A danger, this, not linked to a possible mismanagement of the financial resources that savers have allocated, but rather to the possible lack of repercussions and investments in the territory that decisions taken far from our country can determine.
It can therefore only be welcomed that our concerns on the matter, both from Assopopolari and from those who have an interest in safeguarding the development and cohesion of local economies, have begun to spread and enter the economic debate, as also demonstrated by a recent article published in the national financial press, where, with data in hand, it demonstrates how by now in many of the most important Italian banks the main shareholder is foreign (mostly US funds) and that three national banks are completely at foreign control. This is a situation that has no equal in any other European country similar in size to Italy (it is not the case, for example, in France and Germany) and which is found only in smaller nations.
A tendency, highlighted, which the reform of cooperative banks, through the imposition of transformation into joint-stock companies, has further accelerated and which runs the risk of distancing the bank from its territory of origin, above all if the decisions are taken elsewhere.
All this does not mean that the Italian banking system or the Italian economy should not be open to the outside world, even more so if it is possible to find additional resources in this way to promote development. But perhaps a clearer and broader understanding of the role historically played by the credit system in Italy, and in particular by local banks such as cooperative banks or cooperative credit banks, would not be superfluous, also considering how the Italian production model is mainly based on small and medium-sized enterprises (hence the famous industrial districts) and on the close link between these companies and local credit institutions.
In France, banking cooperation is extolled (the centenary of the law that institutionalized cooperative banks in this country was celebrated just in recent days), in Germany, the Bundesbank is asking the ECB to ease the regulatory pressure for as many as 800 German banks, Popolari and Savings Banks, to put the latter in a position to carry out their task of being close to the real economy.
Perhaps it would be time for these policies to be taken as examples in Italy too and for a common effort to be made to preserve and enable local banks to operate at their best, which still today represent a resource thanks to the contribution they continue to make to growth economic. However, it would be at least desirable if savers were better explained who currently holds control of the main banks that manage their savings, especially if greater inclusion and financial education are advocated.
* The author is the General Secretary of Assopopolari
