Microcredit as a tool for combating financial exclusion in Italy: the differences on a regional and local level

Abstract

This paper proposes a mapping of microcredit (social and productive) in the period from 2005 to 2013 in three main Italian regions. Later we offer a description of the micro-credit initiatives promoted by cooperative credit banks trying to take advantage of any differences in the initiatives promoted by other types of operators in terms of default rates of loans. The differences will be commented on the basis of the distinctive features of this category of these relationship banks in order to identify a possible way of development of microcredit in Italy