Banco BPM S.p.A. is an Italian bank that started to operate on 1 January 2017, by the merger of

Banco Popolare Banco Popolare Società Cooperativa was an Italian bank, formed in 2007 from the merger of Banco Popolare di Verona e Novara (BPVN) and Banca Popolare Italiana (BPI). The bank merged with Banca Popolare di Milano on 1 January 2017. The bank was ...

and

Banca Popolare di Milano Banca Popolare di Milano S.p.A. also known as Bipiemme or just BPM is an Italian bank based in Milan, Lombardy. The bank is a wholly owned subsidiary of Banco BPM. Banca Popolare di Milano S.c. a r.l., an urban area cooperative bank, was founde ...

(BPM) (approved by the board of directors on 24 May 2016). The bank is the third largest retail and corporate banking conglomerate in Italy (in terms of total assets in 2016), behind Intesa Sanpaolo and UniCredit. The bank had dual headquarters in Verona and Milan respectively. The shares of the bank is a constituent of Italian blue chip index

FTSE MIB The FTSE MIB (Milano Indice di Borsa) (the S&P/MIB prior to June 2009) is the benchmark stock market index for the Borsa Italiana, the Italian national stock exchange, which superseded the MIB-30 in September 2004. The index consists of the 40 mo ...

; in 2018 '' Forbes Global 2000'', Banco BPM was ranked the 831st.

History

, the date of formation, Banco BPM is the third largest retail and commercial banking conglomerate by ''pro forma'' total assets in Italy, behind

UniCredit UniCredit S.p.A. is an international banking group headquartered in Milan. It is Italy's only systemically important bank (according to the list provided by the Financial Stability Board in 2022) and the world's 34th largest by assets. It was fo ...

and

Intesa Sanpaolo Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A. is an Italian international banking group. It is Italy's largest bank by total assets and the world's 27th largest. It was formed through the merger of Banca Intesa and Sanpaolo IMI in 2007, but has a corporate identity ...

, and surpassing the former third largest bank Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena (€164.385 billion at mid-2016). Although the

Bank of Italy The Bank of Italy ( Italian: ''Banca d'Italia'', informally referred to as ''Bankitalia''), (), is the central bank of Italy and part of the European System of Central Banks. It is located in Palazzo Koch, via Nazionale, Rome. The bank's cur ...

, the central bank, and

Cassa Depositi e Prestiti Cassa Depositi e Prestiti S.p.A. (also kwown as CDP or CDP Group) is a prominent Italian investment bank founded on November 20, 1850, in Turin. Its main duty was to finance public works like roads and waterworks during the reign of Victor Emma ...

(CDP), the national investment bank, technically have larger total assets than Banco BPM, they operate in a different line of business. ,

had total assets of €123.699 billion and net assets of €8.876 billion in a consolidated basis, while

(BPM) had a total assets of €49.698 billion and a net assets of €4.571 billion. However, they had a similar size in terms of market capitalization, both already suppressed Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena. The shareholders of Banco BPM are the former shareholders of Banco Popolare and Banca Popolare di Milano in a proposed ratio of 54.626%:45.374%. After the capital increase of Banco Popolare in mid-2016, the final exchange ratio for the merger was 1 share of Banco Popolare to 1 share of Banco BPM, as well as 6.386 shares of Banca Popolare di Milano to 1 share of Banco BPM. Banco Popolare and BPM themselves were both originated as Popular Banks ( it, banca popolari), a kind of co-operative bank in Italy, based in cities such as Bergamo, Verona, Modena, Novara and Lodi (Banco Popolare) and Milan, Rome (BPM) respectively. They merged and acquired many ''banca popolare'' and ''cassa di risparmio'' (savings bank) to become the 4th and 9th largest retail and commercial banking conglomerate (excluding CDP) as of 31 December 2015, in terms of total assets, according to a study of

Mediobanca Mediobanca is an Italian investment bank founded in 1946 at the initiative of Raffaele Mattioli (at that time CEO of Banca Commerciale Italiana, the largest commercial bank in Italy which promoted its incorporation together with Credito Italiano) ...

. Banco Popolare and Banca Popolare di Milano were about to demutualize in 2016, due to Italian Law No.3 of 2015, but the two banking group forming a new public ''

società per azioni ''Società'' (Italian language, Italian: ''Society'') was an Italian communist cultural magazine published in Italy between 1945 and 1961. History and profile ''Società'' was founded as a quarterly magazine in Florence in 1945. The founders wer ...

'' directly, instead of demutualize themselves. A new subsidiary, Banca Popolare di Milano S.p.A., would be establish to run the brand of BPM for a few years. Eventually BPM's subsidiary Banca Popolare di Mantova S.p.A. became the new Banca Popolare di Milano S.p.A.. On 10 February 2017, the "year zero" financial results was announced. Due to 2016 capital increase of Banco Popolare, the new banking group had a ''pro forma'' CET1 capital ratio of 12.30% at 31 December 2016. In the first year of establishment, the bank sold its asset management subsidiary Aletti Gestielle SGR to Anima Holding for €700 million. In the next year, the bank securitized a bad loans portfolio of €5.1 billion gross book value, credited it as "Project Exodus" and sold the securities to the market. The bank also applied for Garanzia sulla Cartolarizzazione delle Sofferenze (GACS), a state guarantee scheme for the senior tranche of the securities.

Controversies

The current Banco BPM CEO Giuseppe Castagna has been investigated because he gave bank fundings for millions

Euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

towards his

Communion and Liberation Communion and Liberation (Italian: Comunione e Liberazione, often shortened to CL) is an International Catholic movement founded in 1954 by Fr. Luigi Giussani. The official name is the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation. Its aim is to prese ...

personal friends facing several

conflicts of interest A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple wikt:interest#Noun, interests, finance, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, t ...

, receiving business favors from them in 2012; but the accusation has been archived in 2016. He was later investigated to be involved with insider trading practices for Banca Popolare di Milano (Banco BPM branch) in 2017 but the accusation has been archived in May 2018.Reuters
/ref>

References

External links

* {{Banking in Italy Banks of Italy Companies based in Milan Companies based in Verona Italian companies established in 2017 Banks under direct supervision of the European Central Bank