FinecoBank S.p.A., known as FinecoBank or just Fineco is an Italian bank that specializes in online

brokerage A broker is a person or entity that arranges transactions between a buyer and a seller. This may be done for a commission when the deal is executed. A broker who also acts as a seller or as a buyer becomes a principal party to the deal. Neith ...

. Launched in 1999 with its Fineco Online service for retail traders, Fineco became a listed company in 2014 and has been independent 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' ...

banking group since 2019. FinecoBank is a constituent of

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to June 2009) is the benchmark stock market index for the Borsa Italiana, the Italian national stock exchange, which superseded the MIB-30 in September 2004.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

(since 2016), the blue chip index of the

Borsa Italiana Borsa Italiana () or Borsa di Milano (), based in Milan at Palazzo Mezzanotte, Mezzanotte Palace, is the Italy, Italian stock exchange. It manages and organises domestic market, regulating procedures for admission and listing of companies and i ...

. Since 2015 it has over a million customers in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, where its role has been compared to that of Schwab in

USA The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

. FinecoBank has been designated in 2021 as a Significant Institution under the criteria 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 ...

, 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

Predecessors

The predecessor of Fineco was a financial institution known as GI-FIN S.r.l. in 1982 and then GI-FIN S.p.A. from October 1982. In 1983, the institution was incorporated as Istituto per le Cessioni del Quinto S.p.A. (ICQ), which later known as Novara ICQ S.p.A. and then ICQ Banca Cisalpina S.p.A.. ICQ Banca Cisalpina was a subsidiary of Banca Popolare di Novara (BP Novara). In 1990–91, BP Novara owned 51.21% shares of ICQ Banca Cisalpina. ICQ Banca Cisalpina was also a listed company, which was delisted in 1996 by its new owner Banca Popolare di Brescia (Bipop). In 1999, Bipop merged with Cassa di Risparmio di Reggio Emilia (Carire) to form

Bipop Carire Bipop Carire S.p.A. was an Italian banking group based in Brescia, Lombardy. The group became part of Capitalia in 2002. Capitalia itself became part of UniCredit in 2007, which the brand Bipop Carire was absorbed into UniCredit in 2008. Bipop Cari ...

. As of 1990, Banca Popolare di Brescia also partially owned the namesakes Fin-Eco Leasing (33.33%) and Fin-Eco Factoring (30%). As of 1994, Bipop owned the aforementioned companies via an intermediate holding company Fin-Eco Holding. The Holding also owned another subsidiary Fin-Eco SIM. Bipop also attempted to acquire another namesake Cisalpina Gestioni in 1994. After the 1999 merger, the banking group re-organized ICQ Banca Cisalpina as well as Fin-Eco Leasing and Fin-Eco Factoring.

FinecoBank

ICQ Banca Cisalpina was renamed to "Fin-Eco Banca ICQ S.p.A." (Banca Fin-Eco in short) in 1999, which was considered as the launch date of the current Fineco. In 2002, Bipop Carire and Fineco became part of

Capitalia Capitalia was an Italian banking group headquartered in Rome, in existence between 2002 and 2008. The bank was a listed company in Borsa Italiana (Milan Stock Exchange). The bank was acquired by UniCredit by issuing new shares of UniCredit for sh ...

banking group. In 2007, Capitalia was absorbed into

banking group, while Fineco was kept as a separate subsidiary. In 2014 FinecoBank started its

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

. In 2016 UniCredit sold a further 30% shares to public market. In May 2019, UniCredit sold another 17% shares of FinecoBank. As UniCredit owned 18% shares of FinecoBank after the transaction, FinecoBank is no longer an

associate company An associate company (or associate) in accounting and business valuation is a company in which another company owns a significant portion of voting shares, usually 20–50%. In this case, an owner does not consolidate the associate's financial st ...

of UniCredit. In 2020, Fineco decided to spend 7 million euros on a marketing campaign to grow its services in UK, whose launch was authorised earlier in the same year. FinecoBank Banca Fineco serves customers in the United Kingdom and Italy. UniCredit sold its remaining stake in FinecoBank in 2019.

Shareholders

References

External links

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FinecoBank on FacebookFinecoBank on LinkedIn
{{Online brokerages Banks of Italy UniCredit Group Capitalia Group Companies listed on the Borsa Italiana Companies in the FTSE MIB Italian companies established in 1999 Banks established in 1999 Online financial services companies of Italy Online financial services companies of the United Kingdom Online brokerages Banks under direct supervision of the European Central Bank