Credito Italiano also known as just Credit, was an Italian bank, now part of UniCredit. It was merged with Unicredito in 1998, forming Unicredito Italiano (now UniCredit). Circa 1999 to 2002 UniCredit created a new subsidiary of the same name to run the retail network of Credito Italiano. On 1 July 2002 the subsidiary received the assets of sister banks to become

UniCredit Banca UniCredit Banca S.p.A. was the retail banking division of UniCredit Group. On 1 July 2002, Rolo Banca, Banca CRT, Cariverona Banca, Cassamarca, Cassa di Risparmio di Trento e Rovereto and Cassa di Risparmio di Trieste were merged into Credi ...

History

Founded on 28 April 1870 in Genoa as Banca di Genova, it took part in the establishment of the Bank of Italy ( it, Banca d'Italia) and opened the first trans-Atlantic banking business with Buenos Aires (1872). Local shareholders were local nobility ( Pallavicino and Balbi), bankers (Quartara, Polleri) and merchants (Lagorio, Dodero, Bacigalupo), creating an initial capital of 3 million Italian lira. It acquired "Banca Vonwiller" of Milan. In the 1890s, the international financial crisis led to refinancing by German and Swiss banks and name change to "Credito Italiano" (1895) With a paid-in capital of 14 million lire. It now became a major national bank Later, it acquired "Banca Manzi" of Rome (1901) and "Banca Meuricoffre" of Naples (1905). Its headquarters moved to

Piazza Cordusio Piazza Cordusio (also informally referred to as Piazzale Cordusio)The terms "piazza" and "piazzale" both refer to city squares, the latter being used for "larger" squares. While Cordusio is a rather large square, its formal name is "Piazza Cordusio ...

opened a branch office in London in 1911. By 1913 the equity capital reached 75 million lire, and its savings and demand deposits grew very rapidly. It became a major source of funding for Italian industry in the prosperous years 1896-1913, especially iron and steel, electric power, sugar-beet refining, urban transportation, and chemicals.

First World War

At the commencement of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, the executive directors of Credito Italiano and the

Banca Commerciale Italiana Banca Commerciale Italiana (COMIT), founded in 1894, was once one of the largest banks in Italy. In 1999 it merged with a banking group consisting of Cassa di Risparmio delle Provincie Lombarde (aka Cariplo; est. 1823) and Banco Ambroveneto, wh ...

– another German funded bank in Italy – were officially in favour of neutrality. However these banks were the subject of a campaign by both Italian nationalists, spearheaded by '' L'Idea Nazionale'' and Liberals grouped around Francesco Saverio Nitti. Both these political initiatives had links with business rivals Gio. Ansaldo & C. and Banca Italiana di Sconto.

Post war expansion

Following the war it acquired the " Banca del Monferrato", " Banca di Legnano", " Credito Varesino and the Swiss Banca Unione di Credito (1919), and in 1920 it joined the "Compagnia Finanziaria Nazionale" (1920); and established "Banca Italo-cinese", the "Banca Italo Viennese" and "Tiroler Hauptbank" (1920). In 1921 it opened offices in Paris and Berlin and later contributed to the establishments of Banca Italo Egiziana (1924) and Banca Nazionale di Albania (1925).It was highly profitable in the boom years 1922 – 1925, thanks to the success of Italian industry. Decline set in after 1925. As a result of the great depression, it went bankrupt and was nationalized, but became active again with funding from Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale (1933–1990s). Italian government introduced a law that forced bank to separate short term loan and medium loan business in 1936. Credito Italiano, along with two other "bank of national interests", BCI and Banco di Roma, had formed Mediobanca in 1946.

Privatization and expansion

In the 1990s the bank became a private company, as Italian government sold the stake of the bank. The bank also acquired Banca Popolare di Spoleto (about 50%) in 1992 and

Banca Cattolica di Molfetta Banca Cattolica S.p.A. was an Italian cooperative bank based in Molfetta, Apulia region, southern Italy. The former parent company of the bank (until 1998), Cattolica Popolare survived as a cooperative society. History Banca Cattolica Popolare wa ...

(35%) in 1994. In 1995 the bank acquired a majority interests in

Credito Romagnolo Credito Romagnolo nicknamed Rolo was an Italian bank based in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna. In 1995 it was acquired by Credito Italiano. In 1996 Credito Romagnolo Group (Credito Romagnolo Holding and Credito Romagnolo S.p.A.) were merged with Group Carim ...

(and its subsidiary

Banca Popolare del Molise Banca Popolare del Molise was an Italian bank based in Campobasso, Molise. The bank was one of the "big three" banks in the Molise region in 1994 (in terms of deposit and lending market), as well as ranked the 181st by client deposits in the whole ...

) and

Carimonte Banca Carimonte Banca was an Italian bank based in Bologna, Emilia–Romagna region. The bank was formed on 12 July 1991 (gazetted on 21 August) by the merger of Banca del Monte di Bologna e Ravenna and Cassa di Risparmio di Modena. On 31 December 199 ...

(and its subsidiary

Banca Popolare di Rieti Banca may refer to: Places * Bangka Island, an island lying east of Sumatra, part of Indonesia * Banca, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, a commune of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques ''département'', France * Banca, Tasmania, a locality in Tasmania, Australia * ...

), which was merged into

Rolo Banca Rolo (pronounced /ˈrəʊləʊ/), referring to the roll-styled chocolates, is a brand of truncated cone-shaped or conical frustum-shaped chocolates with a caramel inside. First manufactured in Norwich, Norfolk in the United Kingdom by Mackintosh ...

, except Banca Popolare di Rieti was spin off from Carimonte.

Formation of UniCredito Italiano

In late 1998 Credito Italiano was merged with Unicredito, which Unicredito was absorbed into Credito Italiano, and Credito Italiano was renamed into

UniCredito Italiano 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 f ...

. The original shareholders of Unicredito would owned about 38.46% shares of UniCredito Italiano. In the same year Banca Popolare di Spoleto (July),

(October) were sold, as well as

and

were merged into

and UniCredit in June 1998 and 1999. In December 1999, Credito Italiano was reestablished as a subsidiary (instead of a division within the company).

UniCredit Banca

On 1 July 2002, Credito Italiano, as a subsidiary, was renamed to UniCredit Banca, which received the retail bank assets from

, Banca CRT, Cariverona Banca, Cassamarca, Cassa di Risparmio di Trento e Rovereto and

Cassa di Risparmio di Trieste Cassa di Risparmio di Trieste was an Italian savings bank headquartered in Trieste that operated between 1842 and 2002. In 1992, as part of the Italian government restructuring of public credit institutions, known as the , the bank was split in ...

. On 1 January 2003 UniCredit Private Banking and UniCredit Banca d'Impresa were spin off from UniCredit Banca. In 2010 the bank was completely absorbed into UniCredit.

References

External links

* (currently redirect to UniCredit) {{Authority control Defunct banks of Italy * Credito Italiano Group Former UniCredit subsidiaries Banks established in 1870 Banks disestablished in 2002 Italian companies established in 1870 Italian companies disestablished in 2002 Formerly government-owned companies of Italy Companies based in Genoa Companies based in Milan Re-established companies