Le banche italiane nel “secolo breve”. Riflessioni dalla storia dell’ABI, 1919-1991

This article examines the developments occurred in the Italian banking system during the second half of the 20th century from the point of view of the banker’s major professional association, the Associazione Bancaria Italiana (ABI). Starting from the postwar reconstruction we shall describe ABI’s attitude on the changing trade-off between stability and competition, its ability to cope with the new problems arising from the 1970s crisis, the views expressed and the actions undertaken concerning the reform of the banking system during the 1980 and early1990s. In doing so we shall profit from a huge amount of archival sources emerging from two previous books that the authors published on the history of ABI.