 By January 1934, the IRI reported that it controlled “48.5 percent of the share capital of Italy,” and a few months later acquired the capital of the banks themselves, prompting Mussolini to declare on May 26, 1934 to Italy's Chamber of Deputies that “Three-fourths of Italian economy, industrial and agricultural, is in the hands of the State.” The IRI heavily succeeded in its goals as it saved failing banks and companies by restructuring and refinancing the companies and banks.By 1939 the IRI and other government agencies “controlled over four-fifths of Italy’s shipping and shipbuilding, three-quarters of its pig iron production and almost half that of steel.” Political Historian Martin Blinkhorn noted that “This level of state intervention greatly surpassed that in Nazi Germany, giving Italy a public sector second only to that of Stalin’s Russia.”

After the war, the survival of the Institute was uncertain, as it had been created more as a temporary solution than to meet long-tem goals.But it proved difficult for the state to make the large investments needed for private companies that would only yield returns in the long term.