We ne ertheless be better armed than others

Director-General o Cariparma to the redemption o the prosperous regional bank by the Credit Agricole, the operational pattern o the new ensemble, Guido Corradi (sixty years), details the impro ement o the coe icient o operating le ers and priorities in terms o acquisitions.

How to mo e a network whose exploitation coe icient is already one o the lowest Italy

We align the producti ity o the 202 Intesa agencies we ha e gained on our two networks. 29 Agencies that ha e joined riulAdria on April 1 and the 173 that integrated Cariparma July 1 ha e a coe icient or about 60, there where only Cariparma stood at 44 and riulAdria, e en including new operating agencies, does not exceed 49 in the irst hal . We will irst reduce charges: the bulk o the cost synergies that we plan to release should thus ocus on these new agencies. We also de elop income, both by opening new agencies and strengthening customer companies, two axes on which Intesa hitherto hindered our growth, so that we do him do not direct competition. We could thus open to 15-20 agencies o er the past i e years, while we are now considering to implement a 100 in two years. Similarly, we open 15 business centres dedicated to customer or customer pri acy by end 2009, while nothing was pro ided so ar on these segments o customer companies and 12.

Is there not a contradiction to want to build a national network rom two regional brands

On the contrary! The passage o Intesa agencies to sign Cariparma, which was conducted without signi icant customer loss less than 2.000 customers ha e le t us on 500,000 , shows that can ully implement Cariparma agencies in Rome and Turin to Naples, where we now ha e 65 points o sale. 665 Agencies that account group Cariparma, riulAdria, only 100 are located in the region o Parma.

Will you participate in the consolidation o the Italian banking sector

We will study to piecemeal i it is not pre erable to open agencies own rather than buy. irst, it is two and a hal years, on a erage, to a branch in Italy against our to i e years in rance. Then, prices soared: 202 Intesa agencies that we ha e acquired alued while other lots sold more recently, we saw this rate reach 57 and e en 79 to 20 o their collection. We would pre er to acquire a small or medium sized bank that would retain its brand, rather than lots o agencies that need to change the sign. Another regional bank could integrate into our ederal model, which relies on a ery strong decentralization commercially but ery strong integration in terms o industrial tools.

The arri al o new oreign entrants into the Italian market is not likely to increase the competiti e pressure

The phenomenon is e en more ine itable that the a erage annual price o basic banking ser ices is higher in Italy than the a erage European. We ne ertheless be better armed than others. A recent study shows that the banks held by oreign shareholders are cheaper than the a erage o the Italian banks. Whate er happens on the price ront, the market should retain a certain dynamism in terms o olumes, the rate o equipment o the customer is still ar rom 7 products by customer posted per the rench settlements. Cariparma and riulAdria, or example, it is around 4.5, probably a little abo e the a erage o the Italian market. Equipment o households in mortgage and li e insurance, in particular, here is hal less than in rance.