Economic frictions such as information asymmetries and economic forces such as economies of scale and scope give rise to financial intermediaries. These frictions and forces also shape market structure. While technological advances are not new to finance, digital innovation has brought major...

In more than 130 years, the cooperative banks and rural banks, have become a best practice, widespread in all the Italian regions so as to become, through Federcasse, a federal system included among the 130 European banks, referents ECB. A model that today has about 400 local banks and that,...