Globalization, European integration and regulatory reform in Italy: liberalism, protectionism or reconstruction?

Abstract

Economic globalization and European integration present major challenges to the regulatory systems of European states. However, notwithstanding the severity of these pressures, there is clear evidence that their impact is significantly mediated by the specific political and structural characteristics of individual states. What is less apparent is precisely which characteristics matter and how much room for manoeuvre states enjoy. Frequently, their role is conceptualized in terms of a choice between liberal accommodation or conservative protectionism. However, an analysis of bank reform in Italy, and the role of the Bank of Italy in particular, suggests that an appreciation of the enduring regulatory capabilities of states is necessary if the complex pattern of reform outcomes is to be understood.

Experienced Discrimination in Home Mortgage Lending: A Case of Hospital Employees in Northern Italy

“…Therefore, there is evidence that, for example, the same commercial bank applies different rates depending on the residency of the applicant (north or south Italy). However, access to public data on mortgage rejection rates is limited due to the lack of modernization of the banking system (McCann, 2007). Without law enforcement, banks are reluctant to provide data, so it was impossible to get official data.…”

The Evolution of Organizational Diversity in Banking: Savings Banks’ Consolidation and Sector Coordination in France and Italy, 1980–2012

“…Policy-making was conceived as a "heroic" effort made by technocratic elites located in the Treasury and elsewhere (Schmidt, 1996). In Italy, by contrast, the Bank of Italy had emerged, over the previous decades, as the locus of effective power within the state apparatus, both central and outside of the realm of traditional state bureaucracies (see McCann, 2007). In addition, the "shared beliefs" of Bank of Italy officials reflected the strong territorial bases (and divisions) of the Italian economy -the "Three Italies" emphasized in the socio-economic literature on industrial districts (Bagnasco, 1977).…”

“…by homogenizing previously heterogeneous statutes among Italian credit institutions), paved the way for the subsequent wave of consolidation. Moreover, the Bank of Italy had a very active role in steering banks' consolidation process in the 1990s and 2000s -by using its very effective moral suasion and its peculiar position at the center of the corporate networks in the Italian banking system (see McCann, 2007). The key role played by legal and regulatory changes in re-drawing organizational boundaries in banking -and therefore re-producing organizational heterogeneity -should not, however, mislead us into thinking that state actors acted in full autonomy from the savings banks world.…”

“…In Italy, by contrast, in the absence of strong, centralized institutions and coherent national policies, and where political infighting among the country's key socio-economic actors is pervasive (Locke, 1995), multiple aggregation processes have compounded the "localistic patterns of industrial regulation" (Locke, 1995). 11 In addition, the "shared beliefs" carried by one isolated but powerful institution, the Bank of Italy, whose influence was central in the determination of the direction of banking aggregation processes (McCann, 2007), pretty much fed into the "localistic" tendencies of the restructuring process within Italian banking.…”