Les particuliers, les banques et la confiance : un cas d'étude en Italie

This ethnographic study presents the results of a survey regarding the influence of banking advisors on indebted households in two Italian banks. The data was collected in the course of 73 interviews with the holders of variable rate mortgages and their banking advisors. The present article aims to describe borrowers' choices and motivations faced with soaring monthly repayments at the time of the 2008 financial crisis. The information collected during the survey shows a few of the ways in which banks influence their clients and reconfigure the resources available to families as well as the tools they use to do so, a crucial new factor of inequality in contemporary society.