A future named Carige

They are managers who have built at B throughout their careers, have seen it grow, leave the economic and entrepreneurial enclosure of Emilia, where the bank has its roots, to consolidate itself as a national entity, facing different markets and uncomfortable situations: Luigi Zanti and Giuseppe Aimi are respectively responsible for Liguria and Piedmont for the Modena institute. The Bper has grown through acquisitions, consequently its history on the territories varies a lot, even on contiguous areas such as those of the North-West of Italy.

In Liguria, Bper, as is known, has acquired Carige, the Genoese bank which in the last 10 years has been overwhelmed by the judicial investigation into its historic number one Giovanni Berneschi, has seen struggles between consortia for its control, management mutinies in conflict with the reference shareholder, the sacrifice of small shareholders, the commissioning of the ECB, the very delicate negotiation of the Interbank Fund to find an institution interested in the acquisition, complete with a marriage that was skipped almost at the last minute with the Trentino Ccb.

An incandescent period, in which despite everything the Ligurian institute maintained its central role in the region and the majority of its customers, a bond held up by its structure on the territory. And crowned by the return of an ex like Piero Montani, former CEO of Carige, now at the top of Bper and director of the acquisition.

Piedmontese history is completely different: in common with Liguria, explains Aimi, there is the fact that before the acquisitions, the presence of Bper in these territories “was rather rarefied”. The Carige branches are the last to enter a structure which over the years has absorbed the branches of the Casse di Risparmio di Bra, of Saluzzo, of Unipol Banca, up to the inclusion of the Ubi world in 2021 and then of the Carige lo last year.

«In Liguria – says Zanti – we have found a really great affection for the Carige brand from a significant part of the clientele. Our challenge, both with businesses and with households, is to introduce the mechanisms that guarantee the functioning of a bank of national interest like ours, which is therefore subjected to significant controls by the supervisory authorities, with the logic of the bank of the territory, and the personalization of the offer».

Precisely for this reason “we will start facilitating conditions for loans in Liguria and later also for mortgages to families, we will install a point for internationalization and then we will start the shipping hub”. There is no official statement but the hub already exists: «We have also concluded several operations. It will have Liguria as its starting point – explains Zanti – but in fact all the operations for the sector at a national level will be coordinated from here, in a particularly healthy sector”.

But private individuals, families, small entrepreneurs? «Towards Carige’s regular customers, what we need to make known is our greater potential in disbursing credit, with favorable conditions and available ceilings». Which the “old” bank was finding it increasingly difficult to do, as it had to absorb large amounts of cash to stay within solvency requirements.

«However – sums up Zanti – the real challenge is to go back to customers. Make it clear that beyond the changing brand, the procedures that can be slightly different, the computer system, the different app on the phone, the people who were there before are still there now. And that the bank is, first of all, the people who make it up».

Fresh from five different mergers, Aimi agrees: «In Piedmont we have brought together different realities from time to time, with very strong growth. The response from customers tells us that even with the undoubted difficulties of aggregations, we are on the right track». Piedmont hasn’t inherited heavy structures like those of Carige, but Turin is a place where being there is necessary: ​​for this reason the capital hosts one of the bank’s centers dedicated to foreign countries, and one of its contact centres. «The region is vast and varied – reasons Aimi – in the capital the car supply chain represents a very important piece of its economy, then there is the large agri-food sector, transversal to all the provinces, precision mechanics, tourism – especially in the Alps, Turin and Langhe. Every time Bper presented itself, following an acquisition, it was greeted with respect. But also with the request, and this is the case of the Carige branches, to keep what was before alive».

And digital, the difficult transfer of customers who have passed from one computer system to another, with the chaos of the months between 2022 and 2023? «We have moved – replies Zanti – from a certainly effective system that allowed important customizations towards customers to a more standardized system, especially in business services. Now the problems are smoothed out, but the experience of migrating data from Carige to Bper has made a huge contribution in online support. That said, if households have in the end absorbed the transition well, the digital service to businesses can objectively be improved. It is a complex experience and investments are already in the field: at present, the Bper is the second bank in Italy for investments in technology”.