Banca Carige

1483–1889: Early Years

In 1483 the Franciscan religious Angelo Da Chivasso, founded the mount of piety (Italian: Monte di Pietà) of Genoa.^[3]

In 1846, a decree of Piedmont-Sardinia King Charles Albert of Sardinia created the Cassa di Risparmio di Genova,^[3] which extended the basic financial services of the mount to encourage and protect small savings more widely.

1900–present

In the 19th century, the bank expanded into western Liguria, and in 1967 it became the Cassa di Risparmio di Genova e Imperia.^[3] Imperia was the capital of the west most province of Liguria region.

In 1991, due to Legge Amato, the bank, as a statutory corporation, was split into Banca Carige S.p.A. and Fondazione Carige,^[4] forming Gruppo Banca Carige in the same year. The bank absorbed Istituto di Credito Fondiario della Liguria and Mediocredito Ligure.

In January 1995 Banca Carige entered into the Borsa Italiana as a listed company. In 1997 the Gruppo Banca Carige acquired some insurance companies. In 2000 Carige Vita Nuova Assicurazioni was created from Basilese Vita Nuova, while in 2002 Carige Assicurazioni was founded from Levante Norditalia. In 2000 the Banca Carige Group acquired the Cassa di Risparmio di Savona and the Banca del Monte di Lucca. Between 2000 and 2002, Carige completed three further acquisitions of branches from other banks: 21 branches from Banco di Sicilia, 61 from Banca Intesa group, and 42 from the Capitalia Group in Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto, Emilia–Romagna, Tuscany, Lazio, Marche, Umbria, Apulia, and Sicily. In 2004 the bank strengthened its position in Tuscany with the acquisition of the Cassa di Risparmio di Carrara and founded Carige Asset Management SGR for the management of financial products. In 2004 the bank acquired the private bank Banca Cesare Ponti. In 2008, two further major acquisitions were completed: 79 branches from the Intesa Sanpaolo Group in Aosta Valley, Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto, and Sardinia, and another 38 branches from the UniCredit Group in Lazio, Sicily, Emilia–Romagna, Veneto, and Umbria.^[5] In 2010 the bank acquired another 22 branches from Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena.^[3]

In September 2013, the Bank of Italy (the Central Bank of Italy) blamed Carige for using accountancy tricks and being in a difficult situation due to derivatives the bank had bought from Deutsche Bank. Carige published a statement to explain the event.^[6] The Bank of Italy demands from Carige a new business plan by the end of October.^[7]

In 2013 the bank sold its asset management subsidiary to ARCA SGR for €101 million.^[8] In 2014 the bank sold its insurance subsidiaries Carige Assicurazioni and Carige Vita Nuova to investment funds managed by Apollo Global Management for €310 million (via Primavera Holdings S.r.l.).^[9][10] However, in 2016 the new board of directors want to sue the old managers for mismanagement by selling the insurance companies, claiming it actually harmful to the bank instead of gain.^[11] In mid-2015, subsidiaries Cassa di Risparmio di Savona (with subsidiary Immobiliare Carisa), Cassa di Risparmio di Carrara, Columbus Carige Immobiliare were absorbed into Banca Carige.^[12] In 2016 Banca Carige Italia was absorbed by Banca Carige.

The Banca Carige Chairman Giuseppe Tesauro resigned on 26 June 2018.^[13][14] Vittorio Malacalza, representing the majority shareholder of the bank Malacalza Investimenti, also resigned as a director in July.^[15][16] In total, 8 directors, or the majority of the board excluding CEO Paolo Fiorentino, had resigned in mid-2018.^{[17][18][19][20][21]} However, in the re-election of the whole board, Malacalza Investimenti, secured a majority of the new board for 7 seats, as well as hiring Fabio Innocenzi as new CEO.^[22]

In September 2018, Carige also followed the peer to sell their merchant acquiring business to Nexi.^[23]