Editing Bank of Italy (section)

=== Banks and the economy of the 1930s ===
[[File:Milano - Banca d'Italia 0490.JPG|thumb|Bank of Italy building in [[Milan]]]]

Italy in the 1930s had an agricultural economy, a small number of industrial families who relied on the subcontracting of local suppliers, formed by a myriad of small family-run businesses, not international and whose survival depended on large groups of industrialists, in turn, linked to commercial banks.

The savings from agriculture flowed into the rural coffers, the popular banks and the cooperative credit which financed the life of the provincial crafts, small businesses and construction. The job of the banks was to match the customers' short-term investment horizon with the long-term investments of large groups (Rediscount). National banks turned to local banks that had large deposits of deposits for smaller, low-risk loans.

The Cassa Depositi e Prestiti channelled postal savings in favour of local authorities, public institutions and infrastructures, which were a way of absorbing mass unemployment, through a vast program of public works.

The ideological basis of the law was that savings are a matter of national interest and must be protected by the State, a principle also enshrined in the Republican Constitution and concretized in the first place in the law establishing the interbank guarantee fund and in the policy of public bailouts.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.fitd.it/Chi_Siamo/Istituzione|title=Istituzione|access-date=14 December 2023|language=it}}</ref> The banking legislation of 1936-1938 established a banking supervisory agency, the {{lang|it|Ispettorato per la Difesa del Risparmio e l'Esercizio del Credito}} (IDREC), chaired by the Bank of Italy's governor.<ref name=Giani>{{citation |url=https://www.virtusinterpress.org/IMG/pdf/10-22495cocv6i1p9.pdf |author=Leonardo Giani |year=2008 |title=Ownership and control of Italian banks: A short inquiry into the roots of the current context |journal=Corporate Ownership & Control |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=87–98|doi=10.22495/cocv6i1p9 }}</ref>{{rp|92}} The bank no longer had the right to give credit to individuals but only to other banks as a lender of last resort. public bailout policy. Finally, it had the power to require other banks to deposit a portion of the available funds with the same central bank; by varying the share, the Bank of Italy could operate credit tightening or enlargements.

The law established certain minimum capital and management requirements necessary to guarantee risk management, stability and operational continuity: minimum capital, minimum ratio between loans and deposits, credit limits, provisions for compulsory reserve.