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Donato Menichella was the central-bank governor when Italy's reconstruction and economic miracle took place. While well known are the merits he acquired in the '50s, less understood is the role he played to resolve the nexus between banks and industrial concerns in the '20s and above all in the '30s, when he was called upon to organise IRI, the Institute for Industrial Reconstruction conceived by Beneduce, and to write, together with others, the fundamental banking law of 1936. As a governor native of the South, he was well aware of Mezzogiorno's backward conditions. His was the idea as well as the bill that eventually set up Cassa del Mezzogiorno, the Development Fund for the South. Menichella was a great manager and a grand commis with a high sense of equity and a strong aversion to the limelight, either academic or political. JEL Codes: B3, Moneta e Credito, V. 60, N. 239 (2007)

Based on the extensive statistical documentation recently released by Svimez (Association for the development of industry in Southern Italy), in this paper we examine the evolution of banking structures and lending activities across Italian regions during the last 120 years. In particular, we analyze whether Italian regions have experienced a process of financial convergence and whether this process has followed a similar pattern during the whole period or whether it has been influenced by the various regional/industrial policy and bank regulatory regimes that have featured Italy from 1890 to 2011.

Nel lavoro si analizza in che misura il nuovo assetto che caratterizza il sistema bancario italiano è in grado di rispondere alle esigenze di un sistema produttivo nel Mezzogiorno molto variegato e polverizzato, in cui le imprese, soprattutto di piccole dimensioni, si trovano a fronteggiare una difficile situazione in termini di posizionamento sui mercati, che ormai assumono una dimensione globale che accentua in misura significativa le debolezze strutturali che le caratterizzano.

La tavola rotonda presenta le diverse posizioni che hanno animato il dibattito sugli effetti del consolidamente del sistema bancario italiano.