Abstract

The article scrutinise the financial relationships between Italy and Switzerland in post world war period till the end of the Bretton Woods system. The two countries had a long story of important economic and trade relationships before 1939, but the Swiss capital market never played an important role for the Italian banks and enterprises till the 1950's. The analysis of the financial relationships between the two countries in the 25 years following WW2 shows the mutual interest for the its development: the Italian firms and financial institutions looking for a new capital market where interest rates were below the Italian level, and where the banking system was able to offer a more complex service; the Swiss banks looking for new clients coming from one of the most dynamic countries at that time. The set up, in the 1960's, in the era of the first massive capital outflow from Italy, of the third Swiss financial centre, Lugano and the Canton Tessin, was the final result of an ever closer financial relationships.