Organized crime has reached such epidemic proportions in Italy that the mafia now has larger cash reserves than any of the country’s banks, a report claims Wednesday.

Business trade group Confesercenti said the Mafia currently rakes in more than $180 billion every year. That’s more than seven per cent of Italy’s GDP and it’s all happening tax free, the report says.

It’s believed the Mafia has cash reserves of $84 billion on hand — greater than that of any legitimate Italian lender. “The Mafia is Italy’s No. 1 bank,” says a statement from the group. As a result of the financial crisis, the four largest groups have broken out of their traditional strongholds in the south and other local regions and crept into almost every aspect of Italy’s economy, the report says. The group says the Mafia commits an illegal act every minute in the country, and small and medium-sized businesses are disproportionately hurt by the activity.

The financial crisis that began in 2008 caused conventional banks to reduce lending, which has driven desperate business owners toward loan sharks in pursuit of capital. Once a business succumbs and either borrows money or pays protection money, its failure is often usually only a matter of time. The few entrepreneurs who complain are often abandoned by politicians, banks and even friends and family, the group’s president Lino Busa says.

The group estimates some 200,000 businesses have fallen victim to loan-sharking from organized crime in Italy in the last three years alone.

Money laundering is also rampant through businesses in Italy’s largest city, Rome, where organized crime didn’t use to be as prevalent. More than 1,800 businesses closed because of it in 2010, and the problem has cost the economy tens of thousands of jobs, the report says.

Source [CBC]