Banco BPM, a single health insurance scheme for 19,000 bank employees

Following Intesa Sanpaolo, Banco Bpm has also opted for a single health fund for all 19,000 bank employees within the group. The bank, based in Piazza Meda, has in fact reached an agreement with the trade unions (Fabi, First, Fisac, Uilca and Unisin) under which a new welfare fund will be established by February 2027 and will become fully operational from 1 January 2028, through the merger of the current FAS, CMA and FIAM schemes. The aim is to ensure consistent benefits and strengthen protections for employees, their families and pensioners, given the growing importance of supplementary healthcare as public healthcare services are scaled back.

The agreement provides for an annual per-capita employer contribution of 1,300 euros, to be adjusted every two years in line with the Istat index, and an employee contribution equivalent to 1.40 per cent of their salary. The new fund will provide healthcare and social-healthcare services through direct care, reimbursements and insurance cover, with a unified management of resources. Administrative and operating costs will continue to be borne by the bank. It has also been agreed to harmonise insurance cover for death, accidents and permanent disability due to illness; from 1 January 2028, this cover will be standardised for all Group employees, with the costs borne entirely by the company.

“Ten years on from the merger between Banco Popolare and Banca Popolare di Milano, we have finally managed to establish a joint healthcare scheme. We have worked to bridge existing differences and ensure adequate benefits, building on the tradition of solidarity fostered over time by employees and pensioners,” explains Gianpaolo Fontana, Fabi coordinator for the Banco BPM Group. Paola Minzon, Uilca secretary responsible for the Banco BPM Group, describes the agreement as representing both ‘a point of arrival and a point of departure: almost ten years after the merger, we have finally managed to harmonise the Banco BPM Group’s healthcare scheme for all workers, who come from such diverse backgrounds’. For Cristina Cavina, First Cisl secretary for the Banco BPM Group, “a particularly significant achievement concerns the revaluation of the employer’s contribution based on the ISTAT FOI index, accompanied by the guarantee that this contribution can never fall below the amount paid by the company in the first financial year.” Added to this is Banco Bpm’s commitment to pay the contribution even for employees who do not join the new health fund. These are fundamental guarantees, which strengthen the system’s stability and sustainability in the medium and long term, protecting it from the effects of inflation and any reduction in the number of employees.”