L’ipotesi di gruppi macroregionali e la conservazione del localismo bancario

The present analysis concerns the opportunity to set up the new cooperative banking groups on a regional or macro-regional basis, to grant such groups with a more proper size for giving credit to the enterprises operating in the relevant areas. Although, the 2016 reform of the cooperative banking system made a choice in favor of the national-size banking groups, with a negative impact on the capacity of the group parent companies to really understand and manage the real needs of the specific geographical areas. In this respect, it shall be noted that Article 117, paragraph 3 of the Italian Constitution grants the ordinary Regions with a legislative power concerning “savings banks, rural banks, regional credit companies; regional land and agricultural credit institutions”. Such rule grounds a preference for legal provisions aimed at promoting the regional size of the banking operating institutions. Instead, the current legislative framework simply provides for the setting up, within the cooperative banking group, of local “subgroups” composed by a banking subholding, incorporated as a joint stock company, and by the credit unions subsidiaries of the latter with registered offices in the same region (or in bordering regions); however, both the sub-holding and the credit unions belonging to the subgroup remain subject to the direction and coordination activity of the national parent company; therefore, the reference group maintains its national size and structure.