This work provides a comprehensive overview of the giant leap made by European central bank statistics over the last quarter century. We illustrate, first, the work that led to a brand-new set of central bank statistics for the implementation of the common monetary policy in the euro area and...

Linguistic and cultural differences, different legal and supervisory frameworks, relationship lending have been repeatedly mentioned as barriers to European retail banking integration. We investigate whether these barriers have affected integration within national boundaries, using an index of...

Government intervention in credit markets has been criticized as potentially conducive to distortions in the behaviour of both banks and firms. We argue that credit subsidies may lead to a decline in the level of screening performed by banks. This effect was at work in Italy in the early 1990s...

This paper examines the developments of the Italian banking system during the Nineties from two related points of view: net external position and degree of internationalisation, i.e. branches and subsidiaries abroad. These themes seem particularly interesting in the light of the widespread...