Abstract

The article presents a case study based on the credit policies of a southern Italian bank, the “Cassa di Risparmio di Calabria”, which operated between 1861 and 1998.

The choice of “Cassa di Risparmio di Calabria” is not casual. It is the most important local bank in southern Italy after unification. This study addressed the call for an interdisciplinary approach, using Canergie and Napier’s framework to analyze the credit policies of the Cassa di Risparmio di Calabria.

Highlighting the logic of the practice, we adapted Canergie and Napier’s framework investigating which contextual and firm-specific factors most affected the way in which the firm adopted its credit policies emerging from bookkeeping (the research question).

Document analyses were used as a means of investigation. In detail, archival sources, both public and business -accounting and non-accounting, as well as statutes and notary protocols, old books, journal and ledgers were analyzed in order to address the research question. Actually, the exploration of the historical dimension of banks and financial institutions has a great potentiality within accounting research and it deserves the attention of accounting scholars.

The article contributes to enlarging the knowledge of the functioning of the credit sector in southern Italy after unification. The originality of the article lies in the use of an interdisciplinary approach, specifically the Canergie and Napier framework, to analyze credit policies of a bank.

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