Italian Banks’ Paths through the Crisis

Abstract

Over the past seven years, the financial system has undergone an unprecedented crisis, which has caused important changes in the structure and business models of banks. This paper explores the main changes in the structure of Italian banks’ assets in 2007-2013, by size and category, as a result of the financial crisis and of regulatory and business models changes. The analysis shows that the effects of the crisis were very different on different categories, and that business models have changed, pushing the different banking categories to business models and balances increasingly similar.