The Sovereign Debt Crisis: The Impact on the Intermediation Model of Italian Banks

The aim of the chapter is to analyze the impact of the financial crisis, in particular since the start of the sovereign debt phase, on Italian banks and their intermediation model. Italian banks’ specific business model explains why they suffered less than those of other countries during the first phase of the crisis, requiring one of the lowest levels of public facilities in the EC as compared to GDP. Most of these same characteristics have mutated from positive to negative factors since the sovereign debt crisis, which hit Italy hard, affecting first banks’ liquidity and secondly the cost and volumes of funding and loans. Italian banks are now facing the effects of the double-dip recession, which has significantly weakened businesses and households, their key customer segments, and their borrowing and saving capability, with an increasing rate of non-performing loans. This situation is impairing the sustainability of the “traditional” intermediation model and means that banks must introduce strategies for significantly modifying the banking business model they adopt.