The Main Directions of International Expansion of the Largest Italian Banks in 2000-2020

The beginning of the processes of international expansion of the largest Italian banking groups indicates the transition of the Italian banking system from a completely closed and conservative system, formed back in 1936, to an open and capable of competing with foreign financial institutions. Thus, the reforms of the 1990s, consisting in large-scale privatization and liberalization of the entire banking sector, became a kind of impulse for its transformation. The Italian banking groups formed in this way contributed to its development in the territories of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as North Africa. The largest of them had their distribution in the Russian Federation. However, their further activities on the territory of Russia are called into question in the context of the sanctions applied to the country. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the process of international expansion of the banking sector, which consists in identifying the largest Italian banking groups and their influence in Eastern and Central Europe, in particular the Russian Federation, and North Africa. To achieve this goal, such methods as historical, consisting in the analysis of the chronological sequence of key events of the specified period, comparative and statistical analyses were used. According to the results of the study, the largest Italian banking groups were identified, in particular, those that focus on the international market - Intesa Sanpaolo and Unicredit. The high probability of their further presence on the territory of the Russian Federation was also justified. The main conclusion of this thesis is that as long as the Italian business operates on the Russian market, the above-mentioned largest banking groups will continue to develop their activities within the country due to the need for financial support of the Italian business.