Banca Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze S.p.A. known as Banca CR Firenze, was an Italian

savings bank A savings bank is a financial institution that is not run on a profit-maximizing basis, and whose original or primary purpose is collecting deposits on savings accounts that are invested on a low-risk basis and receive interest. Savings banks ha ...

. Once a

listed company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange ( ...

, the group now part of

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 ...

since 2007.

History

Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze (The Saving Bank of Florence) was found on 30 March 1829. The bank was the central saving bank of the

Grand Duchy of Tuscany The Grand Duchy of Tuscany (; ) was an Italian monarchy located in Central Italy that existed, with interruptions, from 1569 to 1860, replacing the Republic of Florence. The grand duchy's capital was Florence. In the 19th century the population ...

. However, some banks, such as saving banks from

San Miniato San Miniato is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Pisa, in the region of Tuscany, Italy. San Miniato sits at a historically strategic location atop three small hills where it dominates the lower Arno valley, between the valleys of the E ...

, had gained independence from Florence after their establishment.

Casse Toscane

In 1992, due to

Legge Amato Legge () is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Alexander Legge (1866–1933), US businessman, president of International Harvester *Anthony Legge (1939–2013), British archaeologist specialized in zooarchaeology *Arthur Kaye Legg ...

, the banking operation and the ownership were separated into 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 ...

and banking foundation

Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze is a foundation originated from Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze. The foundation was the minority shareholders of Banca CR Firenze S.p.A. (until 2015) as well as the 5th largest shareholders of Intesa Sanpaolo, for 2 ...

. In 1992 the bank also formed a common holding company Casse Toscane for the Saving Bank of Florence,

Livorno Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of the Tuscany region of Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 152,916 residents as of 2025. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn ...

Pisa Pisa ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Tuscany, Central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for the Leaning Tow ...

, Pistoia–Pescia,

and

Banca del Monte di Lucca Banca del Monte di Lucca S.p.A. is an Italian bank. It was related to charity organization Fondazione Banca del Monte di Lucca until the 1990s, when the organizations were separated. Bank The predecessor of the bank, a mount of piety (), was found ...

. Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze was the largest shareholders of the holding company. However, after 1996, the holding company contained only Florence, Pistoia–Pescia and San Miniato, as 4 members banks withdrew to form Casse del Tirreno. In 1998, the shares of Pistoia–Pescia and San Miniato also sold back to their banking foundations. But a year later, Florence Saving Bank bought 51% shares of Pistoia–Pescia Saving Bank. The significant interests of the saving banks of

Civitavecchia Civitavecchia (, meaning "ancient town") is a city and major Port, sea port on the Tyrrhenian Sea west-northwest of Rome. Its legal status is a ''comune'' (municipality) of Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, Rome, Lazio. The harbour is formed by ...

and

Orvieto Orvieto () is a city and ''comune'' in the Province of Terni, southwestern Umbria, Italy, situated on the flat summit of a large butte of volcanic tuff. The city rises dramatically above the almost-vertical faces of tuff cliffs that are compl ...

were also acquired in the late 1990s. After multiple deals, Banca CR Firenze reached 51% ownership of Civitavecchia and 51.575% of Orvieto in 2000.

Listed company

In November 1999 the ''ente'' sold some of the shares of the bank to

Sanpaolo IMI Sanpaolo IMI S.p.A. was an Italian banking and insurance conglomerate, based in Turin. It employed about 44,000 people and had about 7 million customers. On 24 August 2006, a merger with Banca Intesa was announced, which on 1 December 2006 was ap ...

and

BNP Paribas BNP Paribas (; sometimes referred to as BNPP or BNP) is a French multinational universal bank and financial services holding company headquartered in Paris. It was founded in 2000 from the merger of two of France's foremost financial instituti ...

. In 2000 the bank became a listed company in

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 ...

, with the ''ente'' owned 50% shares only. At the end of 2000, Ente CR Firenze owned 43.18%, Sanpaolo IMI owned 19.09%,

owned 6.99%, ''Ente'' of Pistoia & Pescia Saving Bank owned 3.95%,

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 ...

0.82% and Cassa di Risparmio di Padova e Rovigo owned 0.82%, 25.15% held by the public. However Ente CR Firenze also owned 2.57% shares of Sanpaolo IMI as the 6th largest shareholder, which made the ente directly and indirectly held 43.67% interests on Banca CR Firenze SpA, but not voting rights. In 2000 the group acquired Cassa di Risparmio di Mirandola, which reached 99.962% ownership in 2005. In June 2001 the group acquired a minority share holding of Cassa dei Risparmi di Forlì, which reached 12.75% in December 2005. In August 2001 Credito Fondiario Toscano was absorbed into the group. In December 2001 the group increased the shares holding of Findomestic Banca from 35% to 50%. In 2003 the bank acquired Cassa di Risparmio della Spezia (

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 Italy, Italian arm of France, French banking group Cré ...

) from

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 ...

and

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. ...

by cash and shares exchange. The ownership ratio reached 80% in 2006. In March 2006 the group acquired Romanian bank Banca Daewoo S.A. and renamed into Banca CR Firenze Romania S.A.. In 2006 Mirandola was absorbed into Banca CR Firenze.

Privatization by Intesa Sanpaolo

However, in July 2007 the group was being acquired by

. Before the completion of the acquisition and privatization in 2008, The ''ente'' was a significant shareholder for 41.925% shares, with

being the second largest shareholder of 18.570% shares, followed by

(6.547%), Fondazione Carispezia (3.909%), Foundation of Pistoia & Pescia Saving Bank (renamed from ''Ente'' to ''Fondazione'' in late 1990s) (3.680%) and Società Finanziaria di Banche Romagnole (1.088%), about 24.281% shares were held by the public. After the merger the "ente" became the 7th largest shareholder of Intesa Sanpaolo (3.378%), due to the swap ratio of 1.194 Intesa Sanpaolo ordinary shares for each Banca CR Firenze share, while Intesa Sanpaolo owned 89.71% shares of Banca CR Firenze. That made "Ente" owned about 13.3% interests on Banca CR Firenze directly and indirectly, but not in voting rights. The merger also triggered the demerging of Banca CR Firenze's subsidiaries, which CR Orvieto (located in Umbria region) and 4 former Banca CR Firenze branches were sold to

Banca Popolare di Bari Banca Popolare di Bari S.C.p.A. (BP Bari), now BdM Banca, is an Italian bank based in Bari, Apulia region. The bank covered most of mainland Italy (13 of 18 regions), except Piedmont and Liguria, and all the autonomous regions of Italy: Aosta Valle ...

in 2009, as well as Findomestic Bank was sold to

from 2009 to 2011. However Intesa Casse del Centro, previously under directly ownership of Intesa Sanpaolo (96.07% ownership), was sold to Banca CR Firenze, made Banca CR Firenze had access to the saving banks of the Province of Viterbo, Ascoli,

Città di Castello Città di Castello (); "Castle Town") is a city and ''comune'' in the province of Perugia, in the northern part of Umbria. It is situated on a slope of the Apennine Mountains, Apennines, on the flood plain along the upper part of the river Tiber. T ...

Spoleto Spoleto (, also , , ; ) is an ancient city in the Italian province of Perugia in east-central Umbria on a foothill of the Apennines. It is south of Trevi, north of Terni, southeast of Perugia; southeast of Florence; and north of Rome. H ...

Rieti Rieti (; , Sabino: ) is a town and ''comune'' in Lazio, central Italy, with a population of 47,700. It is the administrative seat of the province of Rieti and see of the diocese of Rieti, as well as the modern capital of the Sabina region. T ...

Foligno Foligno (; Central Italian, Southern Umbrian: ''Fuligno'') is an ancient town of Italy in the province of Perugia in east central Umbria, on the Topino river where it leaves the Apennine Mountains, Apennines and enters the wide plain of the Clit ...

, Terni and Narni. (4 from Umbria, 2 from Lazio, 1 from Marche) Soon later the intermediate holding company Casse del Centro was dissolved. In 2010 Intesa Sanpaolo spin off with French 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, ...

, which

was sold to the French banking group, as well as 11 former Banca CR Firenze branches were sold to Crédit Agricole's subsidiary in Italy, Cariparma. In 2012 the local saving banks were reorganized by selling relevant branches to matching subsidiaries, both within Banca CR Firenze and within Intesa Sanpaolo.2012 Annual report
Banca CR Firenze On 26 November 2012 subsidiary

Casse di Risparmio dell'Umbria Casse di Risparmio dell'Umbria S.p.A., known as Casse dell'Umbria, is an Italian retail bank based in Terni, Umbria. The bank is a subsidiary of Intesa Sanpaolo (via Banca CR Firenze). The headquarter of the bank was next to Fondazione Cassa di R ...

was formed by the merger of Foligno, Città di Castello, Terni e Narni and Spoleto saving banks, with CR Spoleto was renamed to CR Umbria. On 23 July 2012 CR Pistoia e Pescia was renamed to Cassa di Risparmio di Pistoia e della Lucchesia. On 12 November 2012 Ascoli Piceno was sold back to Intesa Sanpaolo after Banca CR Firenze acquired 100% shares. On 1 October 2012 Banca CR Firenze Romania S.A. was merged with

Banca Comercialà Intesa Sanpaolo Romania 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 * ...

S.A., which Banca CR Firenze hold 8.18% of B.C. Intesa Sanpaolo Romania immediately after the deal. In 2015 subsidiaries CR Viterbo, Rieti and Civitavecchia were closed down. The shares of the saving banks were exchanged with the shares of Intesa Sanpaolo. In the same year

also excised a put option to sell the minority stake (10.26%) in the bank to Intesa Sanpaolo for €182.5 million. After the deal the former owner of Banca CR Firenze, would just own about 2% shares of Intesa Sanpaolo directly as well as the same ratio indirectly in Banca CR Firenze. In November 2015 Casse dell'Umbria was sold back to the parent company by reduction of the share capital and reserve of Banca CR Firenze.

Current wholly owned subsidiaries

As of 31 December 2015 * Cassa di Risparmio di Pistoia e della Lucchesia, Tuscany region, 74.88% * Infogroup S.c.p.A., Florence, 65.45%

References

External links

* {{Authority control Banks established in 1829 Italian companies established in 1829 Banks disestablished in 2018 Italian companies disestablished in 2018 Defunct banks of Italy Companies based in Florence Companies formerly listed on the Borsa Italiana Former Intesa Sanpaolo subsidiaries Intesa Sanpaolo acquisitions 1829 establishments in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany