The workshop ‘The Italian financial sector in numbers: new time series for recurring questions’ was held at the Bank of Italy's headquarters on 13 June 2017. In recent years the Bank of Italy has stepped up the production of new historical data, both macro and micro, related to banking and finance. For instance, the new Archivio Storico del Credito in Italia (ASCI), a comprehensive database containing information on over 41,000 balance sheets covering nearly 2,600 Italian banks operating between 1890 and 1973, is now available to scholars on the Bank of Italy’s website. The number of studies drawing on historical data has also increased. Seven papers authored by Bank of Italy economists, economic historians and statisticians were presented at the workshop, dealing with topics such as monetary aggregates, the evolution of the banking system’s structure and competition, credit trends, financial cycles, countercyclical capital buffers, and housing rental prices. The papers were discussed by academics and economists from other organizations.
