Associazione Bancaria Italiana is the trade association of Italian banks. The association was founded in 1919, few years after the Association of Italian Saving Banks (ACRI, founded 1912), the Association of Italian Rural Credit Unions (Cassa Rurale ed Artigiana, founded 1915) and more than 40 years after the Association of Popular Banks of Italy (Banca Popolare, founded 1876).[1]
History
The Associazione Bancaria Italiana was established in Milan in 1919 amid expanding economic associationism in Italy, with representatives from 53 banks approving its first articles of association in 1920.[2] During the corporatist period of the 1920s and 1930s, ABI was integrated into the structure of the National Banking Confederation and lost some autonomy; a separate technical association was briefly established in 1936 but dissolved in 1937.[3] Following World War II, the association was reconstituted in 1945 as a representative body open to all banks operating in Italy, tasked with protecting the general interests of the sector in a unified manner.[4]