Banca di Credito Popolare, the increase starts. With financing partners it remains popular and independent

(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - At the end of the month, the extraordinary shareholders' meeting of Banca di Credito Popolare, a historic institution based in Torre del Greco, will launch a 17 million recapitalisation with the use, for the first time in the popular banks sector, of financing shares subscribed by four industrial partners. The capital strengthening with the entry of the lenders (two insurance companies and two banks) allows the Campania-based institution not to have to transform itself into a joint-stock company or lose its autonomy. Entering the capital will be two insurance companies, Athora Italia and Net Insurance, the former with a contribution of EUR 6 million and the latter with a contribution of EUR 2 million, and two 'sister' banks: Popolare del Cassinate and the Tuscan Popolare di Lajatico, both with a contribution of EUR 500,000. The figures are confirmed to Radiocor by some of the protagonists: Net Insurance and Popolare del Cassinate. Popolare di Lajatico indicated this in a note while Athora's commitment, which maintains confidentiality, is inferred by difference given that the increase is 9 million.

Then there is the second leg of the operation, the issuance of an At1 bond, quasi-capital, for a further 8 million, where an important share will be subscribed by Popolare del Cassinate (3.5 million), while Lajatico will underwrite the bond for 500 thousand euro. Net Insurance will not underwrite the bond and consequently Athora's share will be 4 million. Between Bcp and Popolare del Cassinate "there is sharing of values and business strategy" indicates to Radiocor the president, Vincenzo Formisano, with the general manager, Roberto Caramanica, who indicates the numbers of the commitment of the Lazio institute with little equity (there is a strong capital absorption, ed.) and a substantial investment in the At1 bond to help Bcp, in a spirit of mutuality and not speculation.

The partnership between the two institutions, Formisano adds, will 'develop with the logic of the network, with services in common to achieve efficiency thanks to economies of scale, in a banking sector where there is room for biodiversity, he adds, and therefore for small local banks'. Formisano emphasises that Bcp is 'well managed' and shares with Cassinate the strong focus on anti-money laundering.

For Net Insurance, explains managing director Andrea Battista, who puts the commitment with equity at EUR 2 million for the capital increase, 'it is an industrial agreement cemented by the equity investment'. Net Insurance, a non-life company controlled by the Poste Group, will be a partner of the Campania-based bank 'in the protection sector', adds Battista, 'with a multi-year agreement' already in place. The insurance company led by Battista, who is also a minority shareholder, thus confirms its business model that underlies many agreements signed with Italian territory banks, such as Bcp.

Funding shares are an absolute novelty for popular banks even though the possibility has been there since 2021, a rule included in the Decreto Sostegni Bis of that year, recalls Assopolari's Director General, Giuseppe De Lucia Lumeno, questioned by Radiocor. 'It is a new form of participation, one more opportunity left to the boards of directors'. De Lucia Lumeno recalls the genesis of the measure: 'In agreement with the Bank of Italy it was thought that it might be useful to have an additional safeguard instrument represented by the financing shareholders. Financing shares are also a possibility for small cooperative credit banks, in which case the financing member can be the parent company.