SUMMARY
Finance in Italy over the past two decades is characterised by the contrast between the relative stability of the institutional structure of financial intermediaries on the one hand and the far-reaching changes in the instruments of monetary policy and even composition of credit flows, on the other. The present work examines certain aspects of the recent activities of financial intermediaries in Italy and takes stock of the present situation. The authors consider the increasing need for credit transformation, the institutional constraints, direct and indirect transformation, and other links between financial intermediaries. It is suggested that the disequilibria to be observed in the structure of the Italian capital market and credit institutions may simply reflect disequilibria in the non-financial institutions. JEL: E52, G21, G28