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Western EuropeFebruary 5 2007

Banche popolari sitting pretty

Critics of northern Italy’s rapidly consolidating co-operative bank networks decry the fact they can take over commercial rivals but not vice versa. David Lane explains.
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Leisurely holidays are a thing of the past for Italy’s top bankers; even the year-end break no longer brings them respite. On December 28, 2006, Giovanni Bazoli and Enrico Salza, chairmen of Banca Intesa and Sanpaolo IMI respectively, met in the office of a Turinese notary to sign the merger document that joins the two banks. There had been no upsets when the banks’ shareholders met on the first day of the month and voted to approve a deal that had caught everyone napping when it was announced at the end of August. Unsurprisingly, Europe’s biggest banking merger of the year has created a new leader for Italy’s banking sector.

On January 2, Mr Bazoli, now chairman of Intesa Sanpaolo’s supervisory board, and Mr Salza, who has become chairman of the new bank’s managing board, wrote to account holders. The bank’s network of 5500 branches in Italy serves, according to the bank, more than 12 million clients while a further six million are served through a network of 1400 branches abroad, mainly in central and eastern Europe. Account holders who read the small print would have noticed that Intesa Sanpaolo’s registered offices are in Turin, Sanpaolo IMI’s home.

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