THE RISE AND FALL OF ITALIAN SAVING BANKS. A DEA EFFICIENCY APPROACH

Nowadays, Italian Savings Banks (SBs) are providing financial support for the development of local economies as full commercial competitors and players of the Italian banking sector. The study points out the strong link between efficiency performance and the evolution of the sector characterised by a transition from a territorial proximity to a regional brand and thus to a partial collapse. Via the non-parametric Data Envelopment Analysis – Slack Based Model methodology, the evaluation of the SBs efficiency score is carried out over the 2010-2015 period. The results show that SBs belonging to a Bank Group regularly outperform the Stand-Alone ones. Thus, generally increasing technical efficiency, managerial efficiency and scale efficiency confirm the sectorial evolution. The study is innovative for considering the question of SBS and territorial branding of banking groups. Moreover, its results help to understand how to avoid the same mistakes of the past in the future, therefore, under current circumstances, it is particularly important for scholars, managers, people of local communities, and decision-makers.