Banco di Roma's Mediterranean thrust 1900-1952

Abstract

The years between 1911 and 1945 constitute a period when, given the concurrent presence on the island of banks of French, Italian, British, and Maltese origin, Malta already contained elements that could have been the foundation for an internationalisation process of the financial sector in the country. In subsequent years this would certainly have been for the benefit of the island's economy, the hopes for which started getting closer to reality after the 1988 Malta International Business Act (Cap.330), subsequently further amended in 1994. In this study I propose a close look at the Maltese, and more specifically Mediterranean, link with one of the major banks to be located in Malta during the first years of the twentieth century, i.e. the Banco di Roma.