The Antitrust has decided to open an investigation in order to evaluate whether to prohibit the membership of 39 Raiffeisen banks in the province of Bolzano in the Provincial Cooperative Banking Group led by the parent company Cassa Centrale Raiffeisen dell'Alto Adige spa.
This is the third banking group born following the cooperative credit reform, alongside the two giants gathered around Iccrea and Cassa Centrale Banca.
According to the Antitrust however, the transaction is "likely to determine the creation or strengthening of a dominant position in the markets of bank funding, loans to consumer households and loans to manufacturing households and SMEs", "such as to eliminate or reduce competition on the same markets in a substantial and lasting way".
The parties will now have ten days to ask to be heard, while the entire procedure must be concluded within sixty days.
