Foreign intermediaries hold a larger portion of the capital of major banks in Italy than is the case in the other main euro-area countries and the Anglo-Saxon countries; the shareholdings involved are minority interests. The shareholdings attributable to institutional investors, and to pension funds in particular, are negligible.
The banking systems of France and Germany are characterized by the large share of bank capital held by the State, the US system by the presence of large institutional investors. The capital and reserves of Italy’s major banks surpass the standards agreed at international level; however, they are still less than those of the largest intermediaries operating in the European market.