Resumen de The Anatomy of a Banking Crisis: The Case of the Catholic Banks of the Veneto Region in the Late 1920s

Mario Robiony

• This essay treats a little-known episode of Italian financial history:the crisis that hit Italy’s Catholic banks during the twenties. Giventhe significant number of banks involved (about fifty), the field ofinvestigation is limited to those of the Veneto region. The studydraws on documents in the Bank of Italy’s Historical Archives andthe Intesa-Sanpaolo Historical Archive. Although it a plausible thesisthat the Fascist regime had a strategy aimed at weakening the sys-tem of Catholic banks, the causes of the crisis must be sought else-where. The macroeconomic and institutional context certainlyplayed an important role, but the archival sources bring out the re-sponsibility of the men who managed the banks. Seeking to im-prove business performance and lured by the prospect of easyearnings, they underestimated the risks involved in industrial invest-ments, not only as lenders but also as shareholders. Then they cov-ered up their banks’ real financial situation with accounting tricksand cross-shareholdings between banks. The latter made thingsmore complicated for the authorities, whose tardy interventions un-doubtedly were to the detriment of the depositors’ rights