The Evolution of the Italian Banking System and the New Territorial Gaps

In this paper we carry out a research on the evolution of financial system, in order to give evidence to differences among local financial system in spite of the processes of globalization and deregulation. Thus the paper shall investigate the most significant historical stages of the Italian banks, underlining the role of the competitive advantages linked to the local embeddedness. Particularly, we drive our attention to the disparities between the North and the South of Italy, assuming the concept of the funcional distance that attests the negative correlation between the increase of the functional distance and the increase of the bank branches in the southern Italian regions. In this framework, we examine the effectiveness of the policies worked out by the Italian banks to face the crisis, with particular interest on the empowerment of the human resources