Banking in Italy

There are three main types of credit institutions and banks in Italy. Commercial banks, which include three national banks, chartered banks, cooperative banks, and private banks across the country, are the most common.

However, savings banks organized on a provincial or regional basis in addition to investment institutions that issue bonds and provide medium- and long-term credit for public works and agriculture provide additional financial services.^[1]

Unicredit is one of the largest banks in Europe by capitalization and Assicurazioni Generali is the seventh largest bank in the world by total assets.

The Etruscans and the early Romans did not have true minted coinage for many centuries. Debt and debt bondage, however, were probably rife. Wealthy landowners would make an "advance loan" of seed, foodstuffs or other essentials to tenants, clients and smallholders, in return for a promise of labour services or a substantial share of the crop. The terms of such "loans" compelled defaulters to sell themselves, or their dependants, to their creditor; or, if smallholders, to surrender their farm. Wealthy aristocratic Etruscan and Roman landholders thus acquired additional farms and service for very little outlay.^[5] It has been argued that this loan system can be considered an embryonic version of banking as practiced in antiquity.

With the eventual expansion of Roman monetization, a variety of officials came to be associated with banking in ancient Rome. These were the argentarii, mensarii, coactores, and nummulari; many of these roles were derived from Etruscan practices. The argentarii were money changers. The role of the mensarii was to help people through economic hardships, the coactores were hired to collect money and give it to their employer, and the nummulari minted and tested currency. They offered credit systems and loans. Between 260 and the fourth century CE Roman bankers disappear from the historical record, likely because of economic difficulties caused by the debasement of the currency.

The origins of modern banking can be traced to the medieval and early Italian Renaissance, to the rich cities in the north like Florence, Lucca, Siena, Venice, and Genoa. The Bardi and Peruzzi families dominated banking in 14th-century Florence, establishing branches in many other parts of Europe.^[6]

One of the most famous Italian banks was the Medici Bank, set up by Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici in 1397.^[7] The earliest known state deposit bank, Banco di San Giorgio (Bank of St. George), was founded in 1407 in Genoa, Italy,^[8] while Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, founded in 1472, is the oldest surviving bank in the world.

In 1893, following the Banca Romana scandal, the Italian government formed the Bank of Italy, the nation's first central bank, as part of massive reforms to the banking sector.^[9]

Italy had 11 banking groups (excluding banking group that owned by foreign banks) that were supervised by the European Central Bank directly. According to Mediobanca, the overall number of banks and credits institutions in Italy stands at 439 in 2022, which is a sharp decrease from the 740 that were operating in 2011.^[10]

However, ECB considered ICCREA Banca, the clearing house of Italian cooperative banks federation as one banking group, which the publication of Mediobanca considered the cooperative banks are individual entities, such as Banca di Credito Cooperativo di Roma was ranked 22nd in the publication, while ICCREA Banca and Bank of Italy were excluded from the publication.

The following is a list of the main Italian banks ranked by total assets and risk-weighted assets.

As of December 2022^[10]

Rank (by Mediobanca)	Company	Total Assets (billion €)	RWAs (thousands €)	Type
1	Intesa Sanpaolo	975.68		domestic systemically important bank;[11] supervised by European Central Bank[12]
2	UniCredit	857.77		global systemically important bank (Bucket 1) identified by Financial Stability Board;[13] supervised by European Central Bank[12]
*	Bank of Italy			central bank
3	Cassa Depositi e Prestiti	400.69		national investment bank, majority owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance
*	BancoPosta division of Poste italiane			joint-control by Cassa Depositi e Prestiti and the Ministry of Economy and Finance
*	Istituto per il Credito Sportivo			a subsidiary of the Ministry of Economy and Finance
4	Banco BPM	189.69		domestic systemically important bank;[11] supervised by European Central Bank[12]
5	BPER Banca	152.3		supervised by European Central Bank[12]
6	Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena	120.24		domestic systemically important bank;[11] supervised by European Central Bank,[12] minority owned by Ministry of Economy and Finance (legacy of the 2017 bailout)
7	Banca Nazionale del Lavoro	104.09		subsidiary of BNP Paribas
8	Mediobanca	93.74		supervised by European Central Bank[12]
9	Crédit Agricole Italia	58.42		subsidiary of Crédit Agricole
10	Banca Mediolanum	73.6		Also an leading insurance company, supervised by European Central Bank
11	Credito Emiliano	65.04		supervised by European Central Bank[12]
12	Banca Popolare di Sondrio	53.30		supervised by European Central Bank[12]
*	ICCREA Banca	38.12 [14]: 375	12,834,414[14]: 30	clearing house owned by 300+ regional banks, supervised by European Central Bank[12]
13	Deutsche Bank (Italy)	023.93		subsidiary of Deutsche Bank AG
14	Banco di Desio e della Brianza	013.98
15	Banca Sella Group	013.97
16	Banca di Credito Cooperativo di Roma	011.59		Will be part of ICCREA Banca Group as shareholder
17	Cassa di Risparmio di Asti	011.51

Note: Banks with assets less than €10 billion were omitted from this wiki list. Barclays Bank, Italian branch was also excluded

• Economy of Italy
• Economic history of Italy
• History of coins in Italy
• List of banks in Italy

• Major banks in Italy