BPER Banca S.p.A., formerly known as Banca Popolare dell'Emilia Romagna S.C., is an Italian banking group offering traditional banking services to individuals, corporate and public entities. The company is based in

Modena Modena (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. It has 184,739 inhabitants as of 2025. A town, and seat of an archbis ...

and is a constituent of the

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to June 2009) is the benchmark stock market index for the Borsa Italiana, the Italian national stock exchange, which superseded the MIB-30 in September 2004.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 m ...

index. The bank had branches in most of Italy, but not in Aosta Valley and Friuli – Venezia Giulia. The bank is a majority shareholder of Piedmontese bank Cassa di Risparmio di Bra and

Saluzzo Saluzzo (; ) is a town and former principality in the province of Cuneo, in the Piedmont region, Italy. The city of Saluzzo is built on a hill overlooking a vast, well-cultivated plain. Iron, lead, silver, marble, slate etc. are found in the su ...

, as well as minority shareholders of

Fossano Fossano () is a town and ''comune'' of Piedmont, Northern Italy. It is the fourth largest town of the province of Cuneo, after Cuneo, Alba and Bra. It lies on the main railway line from Turin to Cuneo and to Savona, and has a branch line to Mon ...

and

Savigliano Savigliano () is a of Piedmont, Northern Italy, in the Province of Cuneo, about south of Turin by rail. It is home to ironworks, foundries, locomotive works (once owned by Fiat Ferroviaria, now by Alstom) and silk manufactures, as well as sugar ...

. BPER has been designated as a Significant Institution since the entry into force of

European Banking Supervision European Banking Supervision, also known as the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), is the policy framework for the prudential supervision of banks in the euro area. It is centered on the European Central Bank (ECB), whose supervisory arm is re ...

in late 2014, and as a consequence is directly supervised by the

European Central Bank The European Central Bank (ECB) is the central component of the Eurosystem and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) as well as one of seven institutions of the European Union. It is one of the world's Big Four (banking)#International ...

History

Banca Popolare dell'Emilia was formed by the merger of Banca Popolare di Modena (founded in 1867) with Banca Cooperativa di Bologna on 29 December 1983. The bank merged with Banca Popolare di Cesena to form Banca Popolare dell'Emilia Romagna on 1 May 1992. The bank acquired and absorbed many provincial and regional-level Community Banks () and Savings Banks () from the 1990s to the 2010s.

2000s

* 2005 Cassa di Risparmio di Vignola was privatized for about €33 million. The remaining 23.913% of shares were sold by the banking foundation. * 2006 The minority interests in Cassa di Risparmio di Bra,

and

were acquired from

UniCredit UniCredit S.p.A. (formerly UniCredito Italiano S.p.A.) is an Italian multinational banking group headquartered in Milan. It is a systemically important bank (according to the list provided by the Financial Stability Board in 2022) and the world' ...

for about €149 million.

2010s

In February 2013, BPER acquired an additional 35.98% stake of CR Bra S.p.A. from the banking foundation of CR Bra for around €23.9 million. After the deal, BPER owned a 67% stake. The bank was affected by Decree-Law N°3 of 2015, which required banks with assets more than €8 billion to transform from Cooperative societies (S.C.) to

Società per Azioni (; abbr. S.p.A. or spa ) is a form of corporation in law of Italy, Italy, meaning 'company with shares' (although often translated as 'joint-stock company', which may or may not be a limited liability entity). It is more or less equivalent to ...

(from one person one vote to one share one vote). In 2016 the controlling stake in

Cassa di Risparmio di Saluzzo Cassa di Risparmio di Saluzzo is an Italian saving bank. The bank was based in Saluzzo, in the Province of Cuneo, Piedmont. Since the bank reforms in 1991, the bank was split into a società per azioni and a non-profit banking foundation. Cassa di ...

was acquired from the banking foundation of CR Saluzzo. On 14 July 2016 a gross value of €450 million bad loans (the most doubtful non-performing loans) were sold to Algebris NPL Fund and Cerberus European Investments without recourse. Italian banks had the highest gross NPLs to total loan ratio in the European Union (18% at 31 December 2015); BPER Group's gross NPLs to total loan ratio was 23.28% at 31 December 2015, or €11.395 billion in size in gross; Banco di Sardegna along had €2 billion as well as highest ratio among the group. In late 2016 the bank was re-incorporated as BPER Banca S.p.A., as part of the mandatory process, the bank offered to buy back the shares for €3.8070, based on the historical price of the bank. However, no share was repurchased, and the market value of the bank in the Borsa returned to above that price. On 2 March 2017, BPER Banca signed a contract to acquire Nuova Cassa di Risparmio di Ferrara for a nominal fee of €1. On 30 June the deal was completed. In February 2019, BPER Banca announced the acquisition of Unipol Banca from Unipol and UnipolSai. The takeover was completed in July 2019 and on 25 November 2019, Unipol Banca was incorporated into BPER Banca.

2020s

In 2020, BPER entered into an agreement with

Intesa Sanpaolo Intesa Sanpaolo Società per azioni, 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 ...

to acquire 532 branches the latter will have to shed as a result of regulatory obligations resulting from its successful acquisition of rival

UBI Banca Unione di Banche Italiane S.p.A., commonly known for its trading name UBI Banca, was an Italian banking group, the fifth largest in Italy by number of branches. It was formed on 1 April 2007 from the merger of the Banche Popolari Unite (trading ...

. In February 2022, BPER Banca acquired

Banca Carige Banca Carige S.p.A., historically known as Cassa di Risparmio di Genova e Imperia (Ca.Ri.Ge.) was an Italian bank based in Genoa, with more than 500 bank branches in Italy, prior to its acquisition by BPER Banca in February 2022. The predecess ...

. On 7 February 2025, BPER Banca launched a €4.3bn takeover bid for Banca Popolare di Sondrio.

Former subsidiaries

Equity interests

ARCA SGR Arca Fondi SGR () is an Italian fund management company based in Milan. The company was born from the experience of Arca SGR SpA, founded in October 1983, thanks to the effort of 12 Italian Cooperative Banks and over the years has added other ...

(32.752%) *

Cassa di Risparmio di Fossano Cassa di Risparmio di Fossano is an Italian savings bank based in Fossano, in the province of Cuneo, Piedmont. Monte di Pietà di Fossano was founded in 1591. In 1905 the bank was formed by the mount of piety. Since the bank reformed in 1991, it ...

(23.077%) *

Banca Cassa di Risparmio di Savigliano Banca Cassa di Risparmio di Savigliano S.p.A. is an Italian saving bank. The bank was based in Savigliano, in the Province of Cuneo, Piedmont. Since the bank reforms in 1991, the bank was split into a società per azioni and a non-profit banking f ...

(31.006%)

Shareholders

References

External links

* {{Authority control Banks of Italy Companies based in Modena Banks established in 1983 Former cooperative banks of Italy Italian companies established in 1983 Banks under direct supervision of the European Central Bank Companies in the FTSE MIB