Crédit Agricole Carispezia S.p.A. formerly known as Cassa di Risparmio della Spezia S.p.A., or Carispezia in short, is an Italian savings bank, which is part of

Crédit Agricole Italia Crédit Agricole Italia S.p.A., formerly Crédit Agricole Cariparma S.p.A., is an Italian banking group, a subsidiary of French banking group Crédit Agricole. Crédit Agricole Italia was ranked as the 11th largest bank in Italy by total assets a ...

, the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

arm of

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

banking group

Crédit Agricole Crédit Agricole Group (), sometimes called La banque verte (, , due to its historical ties to farming), is a French international banking group and the world's largest cooperative financial institution. It is the second largest bank in France, ...

. Since 2016, the brand Crédit Agricole Italia was used for the whole banking group.

History

Found in 1842, Carispezia became a

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 ...

in 1992, which split the bank non-profit making ownership (a banking foundation) and banking operation (a s.p.a.).

Cassa di Risparmio delle Provincie Lombarde Cassa di Risparmio delle Provincie Lombarde, known in shorthand as Cariplo SpA, was an Italian bank founded in 1823. On 2 January 1998, it merged with Banco Ambrosiano Veneto to form Banca Intesa. Cariplo SpA became a short-lived sub-holding comp ...

(Cariplo) also became a minority shareholder of the bank for 25

billion Billion is a word for a large number, and it has two distinct definitions: * 1,000,000,000, i.e. one thousand million, or (ten to the ninth power), as defined on the short scale. This is now the most common sense of the word in all varieties of ...

lire nominal value of share capital.

Cariplo & Banca Intesa era

In 1995, Carispezia was merged with the saving bank of

Alessandria Alessandria (; ) is a city and commune in Piedmont, Italy, and the capital of the Province of Alessandria. It is also the largest municipality of the region. The city is sited on the alluvial plain between the Tanaro and the Bormida rivers, ...

and

Carrara Carrara ( ; ; , ) is a town and ''comune'' in Tuscany, in central Italy, of the province of Massa and Carrara, and notable for the white or blue-grey Carrara marble, marble quarried there. It is on the Carrione River, some Boxing the compass, ...

, with Cariplo and the foundations of the banks became the new shareholder of a new holding company Carinord Holding SpA (acronym of Cassa di Risparmio

Nord Nord, a word meaning "north" in several European languages, may refer to: Acronyms * National Organization for Rare Disorders, an American nonprofit organization * New Orleans Recreation Department, New Orleans, Louisiana, US Film and televisi ...

), which held 68.09% of Carispezia shares, and 31.91% shares remain held by

Fondazione Carispezia Crédit Agricole Carispezia S.p.A. formerly known as Cassa di Risparmio della Spezia S.p.A., or Carispezia in short, is an Italian savings bank, which is part of Crédit Agricole Italia, the Italian arm of French banking group Crédit Agricole. ...

. In 1998, Cariplo held 30.94% shares of Carinord Holding. In 1998, Cariplo merged with

Banco Ambrosiano Veneto Banco Ambrosiano Veneto, also known as Banco Ambroveneto for short, was an Italian bank formed in 1989 by the merger of Nuovo Banco Ambrosiano (the bank replacing the collapsed Banco Ambrosiano) with Banca Cattolica del Veneto. Since 1989, Crédit ...

to form

Banca Intesa Banca Intesa S.p.A. was an Italian banking group, formed in 1998 by merger of Cassa di Risparmio delle Provincie Lombarde (Cariplo) and Banco Ambrosiano Veneto. The next year, the banking group merged with Banca Commerciale Italiana to become ...

, which the shares of Carinord Holding held by Cariplo was transferred to Banca Intesa. In 2002, the saving bank of Alessandria was split from the union. Carinord 2 SpA was formed, with Banca Intesa held 41.14%, Fondazione Carispezia held 31.83%, Fondazione CR Carrara held 27.03%. Fondazione Carispezia was the ''de facto'' major shareholder through direct and indirect holding of Carispezia's shares. As part of Banca Intesa ended in 2003, which Carinord 2 was acquired by

Banca CR Firenze Banca Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze S.p.A. known as Banca CR Firenze, was an Italian savings bank. Once a listed company, the group now part of Intesa Sanpaolo since 2007. History Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze (The Saving Bank of Florence) was fo ...

(for Spezia only) and

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 ...

(for Carrara only). Banca Intesa would receive €115 million for its 41.14% shares on Carinord 2.

Banca CR Firenze era

In 2004,

completed the takeover of Carispezia, which the bank acquired the shares of Carinord 2 from the foundation. In 2006, the foundation further decreased its direct ownership on Carispezia to 20%.

Return to Intesa

In 2007,

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 ...

, the successor of Banca Intesa, merged with Banca CR Firenze by shares exchange. In 2008, the privatization was completed, thus Carispezia finally acted as a subsidiary of Intesa instead of a loose shareholding union.

Crédit Agricole era

In 2010, Crédit Agricole acquired Intesa Sanpaolo's investment in Cassa di Risparmio della Spezia (equal to 80% of the capital) for 740 million euros, as well as 96 Group branches. However, in 2011, as part of

further direct investment into Italy as well as disinvestment in

, Carispezia was acquired by the French banking group, and place under the ownership of its Italian subsidiary, Cariparma. The brand Carispezia was survived from the takeover, despite under the name "Carispezia-Crédit Agricole" in the logo. Nevertheless, in 2016 the banking group started to use Crédit Agricole Italia as their brand, with a new logo for their subsidiary and a common website. Since 2018, the general manager is Gianluca Borrelli, who has taken over from Carlo Piana who has moved to Crédit Agricole FriulAdria. From 21 July 2019, it was merged by incorporation into the Italian parent company Crédit Agricole Italia.

Sponsorship

Carispezia was the sponsor of Serie B club

Spezia Calcio Spezia Calcio is an Italian professional Association football, football club based in La Spezia, Liguria, currently competing in the Serie B. Spezia Calcio was founded in 1906 by the Swiss banker Hermann Hurni (or Hurny in some documents), who ...

(as of 2017–18 season).

References

External links

*
Old website
{{Authority control Banks established in 1842 1842 establishments in the Kingdom of Sardinia Banks of Italy Companies based in Liguria La Spezia Banca CR Firenze acquisitions Former Intesa Sanpaolo subsidiaries Crédit Agricole subsidiaries