Abstract

The article analyses the legislative process of the Banking Act of 1926 and its subsequent application between 1926 and 1929. The main objective is twofold. First, the essay aims to highlight the roles played by different centres of political and economic power in defining the new banking law. Second, the article aims to reflect on the significance of the reform within the establishment and strengthening of the fascist dictatorship after 1925. To achieve this, the paper examines the negotiations that took place between Giuseppe Volpi, the Minister of Finance, Bonaldo Stringher, the General Director of the Bank of Italy, and the Confederazione Bancaria Fascista, led by Giuseppe Bianchini, on some key points of banking regulations. In the conclusion, some reflections are offered on the role of the reform within the process of constructing the authoritarian fascist State in the second half of the 1920s and how it reflects the structural characteristics of the post-1925 bloc of economic and political power in Italy.