Banks: the recent past and the current situation The Italian banking industry is emerging from a prolonged period of distress. The ongoing economic recovery and the resolution of important critical cases 2 have drastically reduced tail risk and are helping to improve confidence. During the financial crisis, Italy’s banking system proved much more resilient than expected by many observers.
The recession suffered by the Italian economy was significantly deeper than for other European countries, yet the costs for the taxpayer – in the form of public support to ailing banks – have been much lower than elsewhere. The costs of the crises have been largely shouldered by bank shareholders and by the banking sector itself.