Over 90 per cent of households have at least one post office or bank account; in the mid-1960s, when the Bank of Italy instituted its sample surveys of household budgets, that share barely surpassed 25 per cent.
Greater participation by households in the financial market has been accompanied by a gradual increase in portfolio diversification and in the share of savings invested in more risky assets. Bank deposits and post office savings have long been the main form of investment (Figure 1).