With 1,095 members, the Italian Banking Association is the largest national banking association in Europe representing not only banks, but also the rest of the financial system. It represents,defends and promotes the interests of the banking and financial systems. It is the spokesman for all banks, large, medium-sized and small. It is also the voice of the rest of the financial system (excluding insurance industry): leasing and factoring companies, trust companies, securities investment firms and asset management companies.
In October 2008, ABI had 1,095 members:
13 associations (5 representing banks, 8 representing other financial intermediaries);
770 banks (240 joint-stock companies, 59 branches of foreign banks, 1 public bank, 38 cooperative banks and 432 mutual banks);
253 non-bank financial intermediaries (37 leasing companies, 8 factoring companies, 8 trust companies, 21 securities brokerage firms, 60 asset management companies, 23 securitization companies and 96 holding companies, regional and shareholding companies).
59 companies have given ABI a mandate to represent them solely in collective bargaining.
ABI is the spokesman for a system with 33,229 counters, approximately 342,000 employees, total assets of over €3.1 trillion, funding (deposits and bonds) of over €1.2 trillion and lending of almost €1.5 trillion. There are private and listed banks. The largest five banking groups account for 51.5% of the total assets of the system. There are over 33 million current accounts in Italy, 34.5 million credit cards, and more than 34 million debit cards of which 33.1 million may be used to make payments at sales points. There are over 43,800 automated teller machines. In terms of e-banking, 10.5 million current accounts can be accessed by the internet. Almost 32,500 financial planners work for banks.
The recent transformation of the Italian banking system has generated an enormous process of concentration. There are now 140 banking groups or independent banks operating in the Italian market. We arrive at this number by calculating components of banking groups as one bank and mutual banks as one as well. At the end of 2007, in Italy, the average impact concerning foreign operating activities for the largest five banking groups was 35% of the total assets. The share for the entire group was 25.7%.