The Italian banking system has 11,1% of the total banking assets of the 12 nations sharing the euro, lagging behind only Germany and France. Italy accounts for 16,3% of the total euro area GDP.
The numbers descripting the transformation of the Italian banking sector speak for themselves. The number of banks operating in Italy dropped 27% from 1,064 in 1990 to 778 in 2004.
As a result, the average size of Italian banks has increased strongly. In terms of individual credit institutions, the average size of the the five largest Italian banks almost doubled to 122,9 billion euros in 2004 from 71,7 billion euros in 1993. Greater still was the increase in size of the five largest banking groups, that climed in the period to 202,7 billion euros from 86,1 billion euros.