Banking System

Cedacri, 500 mln turnover: 'Sharing model to be exported'

The company, part of the Ion Group, is now looking at France and Germany. Peyrano: 'Many opportunities in Europe'

by Raffaella Calandra

7 May 2026

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Key points

50 years of Cedacri
AI
Cedacri numbers
After the acquisition by Ion
New opportunities in Europe
The depopulation of inland areas

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

IIn the beginning were five banks from Emilia and an idea: to share technologies, skills and risks. Fifty years later, Cedacri manages 18% of Italy's daily transactions with 150 billion in loans, reaches 2,500 branches and after joining Ion aims to expand in Europe. Looking first of all at France and Germany, as well as Spain and Greece where the group is already present.

50 years of Cedacri

"Our model is exportable wherever there are community banks and fragmented systems. We plan to consolidate our leadership in Italia, and then project ourselves in Europe: we believe there are great opportunities, because there are many regional banks with the same kind of needs as the Italian ones and the same challenges". Luca Peyrano, Cedacri's executive chairman, summarises in a slogan the watchword of the company that has become one of the main technological players in the banking system: 'Small where it counts, big where it is needed'. In other words, combining relational value, the strong point of local institutions, with the technological infrastructures required for more efficient management.

AI

A model that in times of artificial intelligence means 'the strategic asset of aggregated data and more sustainable investments with a shared infrastructure to have, for example, predictive models in credit and customer segmentation. A consortium of banks generates a larger dataset than any single institution'.

Cedacri numbers

The local dimension and the original intuition remain relevant even now that, after fifty years, Cedacri has 1,800 employees, a turnover of 500 million in 2025 and as a system of banks served contributes 50 billion in added value for the country. The vocation for innovation became even stronger after the acquisition in March 2021 by Andrea Pignataro's Ion Investment group, a leader in the development of software, data and analytics for the financial sector: six months later it would also take over Cerved, specialising in data intelligence, and followed by Prelios, a leading platform in alternative asset management and credit servicing.

After the acquisition by Ion

For Cedacri, the integration into Ion has also translated into 'improved operational performance: interventions on technological and organisational models,' they claim, 'have led to a reduction of up to 80% in overall incidents. One hundred million invested in innovation in three years and the launch of the Digital Banking Platform, "an evolution towards digital banking models based on more flexible, modular platforms, with customer-oriented digital services: by the end of 2025," Peyrano recalls, "15 new products have been developed and others will be launched in the coming months.

New Opportunities in Europe

Even so, independent banks strengthen their instruments, managing not to be swallowed up by large groups. In this perspective, the Cedacri model becomes 'exportable'. Where? 'Germany as well as France,' Peyrano replies, 'have important regional and cooperative banks where we can apply the same approach; in Spain and Greece we already have windows open, through our subsidiary Cad it in the first case, with Cerved in the second.

The depopulation of inland areas

In Italy this 'technological mutualism' has favoured the survival of a 'unique system with local banks and cooperatives serving communities where large groups no longer arrive', reflects Peyrano, who cites the figures on the depopulation of inland areas: almost 5 million people live in so-called desertified areas, 3,457 municipalities (43.8% of the total, especially in Molise, Calabria and Val d'Aosta) are without bank branches, 516 were closed last year alone. Yet research, such as that of the current Rector of the Università Cattolica Elena Beccalli, shows how proximity to a branch facilitates access to credit, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises; and at the same time the coexistence of different banking models (large groups, cooperatives, regional banks) is not inefficiency, but represents a condition of resilience of the system.

This added value is particularly important in times of great international uncertainty: a condition faced and overcome over the last fifty years by many small banks precisely by pooling technology, skills and risks. Local presence and global vision. Cedacri's initial intuition. 'The future has an ancient heart', Carlo Levi would say. Even for banks.