Giorgio Carlo Brugnoni

Intermediation Model, Bank Size and Lending to Customers: Is There a Significant Relationship? Evidence from Italy: 2008–2011

The global financial crisis started in 2007, the economic downturn which followed and, the effects of the sovereign debt crisis, caused a relevant slowdown in banks’ lending in Italy. As reported by the Bank of Italy (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011) banks’ lending to customers slowed down consistently between 2008 and 2011, in spite of a slight recovery registered in 2010. Although basically widespread, this phenomenon was more intense for the larger banks than for the smaller ones, mainly reflecting different funding constraints. In particular, large intermediaries generally faced more difficulties in wholesale funding on the interbank market, especially after the start of the global financial crisis in 2007 (Bank of Italy, 2008) and cause of the effects of the sovereign debt crisis (Bank of Italy, 2011; Albertazzi et al., 2012).

Credit Development, Quality Deterioration and Intermediation Model: Does Bank Size Matter?

In Italy, the effects of the global financial crisis started in 2007 caused both a significant downturn in the trend in loans to customers and a serious deterioration in the quality of credit exposures. Although widespread, this phenomenon took on different characteristics according to bank size; during the worst phase of the crisis, loans provided by larger banks grew significantly less than did those provided by smaller banks. In contrast, the deterioration in credit exposures mainly affected small and minor banks.

Islamic Bonds and Real Estate Securitizations: the Italian Perspective for Issuing a Sukuk

The research looks at the possible advantages of which Italian companies and public entities could benefit looking at Islamic finance as a viable alternative to conventional finance, in a context characterized by a growing presence of Islamic citizens throughout Europe and Italy and by increasing interest in investing in Italy by Islamic investors. The research investigates the possibility for an Italian entity (corporate or sovereign) to issue a sukuk with a national real-estate underlying, under the current legal, fiscal and technical framework. The aim is to concretely contribute to the awareness about the opportunities that Islamic finance could bring with it and to promote fiscal, normative and regulatory obstacles removal, in order to create a level playing field—as the United Kingdom did—that would allow Islamic finance to develop also in Italy.

The Determinants of Lending to Customers: Evidence from Italy Between 2008 and 2012

Over the period between 2008 and 2012 the loans to customers trend, the quality deterioration of the loans to customers portfolios and the interest return on the lending to customers activity showed in Italy relevant heterogeneities by bank size and by juridical connotation. This paper, based on financial statements data between 2008 and 2012 from about 500 Italian banks, adopts a panel data analysis to investigate if the heterogeneities showed in the loans to customers trend, in the quality deterioration of the loans to customers portfolios and in the interest return on the lending to customers activity are effectively significant and to what extent they could be explained by the differences that could be identified in the main features of the intermediation model adopted by banks. Moreover, this paper investigates the existing relationship between the loans to customers development and the credit quality deterioration and to what extent they both contribute to affect the economic return of the lending to customers activity.

Italian Banks Facing Basel 3 Higher Capital Requirements: Which Strategies Are Actually Feasible?

With the introduction of the Basel 3 regulatory framework, banks need to identify and evaluate the best strategies in order to achieve and respect the new prudential requirements — stricter capital adequacy limited leverage ratio and minimum liquidity standards — and also to face the impacts on their business.