The Extraordinary Shareholders' Meeting of the Bcc di Cambiano, which was held yesterday in Castelfiorentino with 1300 out of 2950 shareholders voting, unanimously approved the transfer of the Bank from Cooperative Credit to a Joint-Stock Company.
The Bcc of Cambiano, according to the latest ranking of the main Italian companies drawn up by the Mediobanca Research Office, confirms its position as the first Bcc in Tuscany and the third Bcc in Italy by total assets, and after this last meeting passage, it will also enter also in the annals as the first Bcc to exercise the way out of the cooperative credit to take on the corporate form of the Spa from 2017 January 15. The operation, which reported the authorization by the European Central Bank and the Bank of Italy, takes place through the integration with the young and dynamic Banca Agci spa, established in the best traditions of the cooperative world, and already active in the squares of Turin, Bologna and Rome, whose extraordinary meeting which took place on Thursday XNUMX in Bologna gave unanimous approval.
Banca Cambiano 1884 spa will be the name of the new banking reality that will emerge from the marriage between the two banks. The registered office and general management will be in Florence, the central operational structure will remain in Castelfiorentino.
Faced with the development achieved and with the pressing regulatory provisions that have an increasingly heavy impact on the exercise of banking activity, the Bcc of Cambiano has faced the double challenge of adapting its structures to the new dimensions and at the same time remaining faithful to its history and to the turning point that over forty years ago led it, with great foresight, to leave the Tuscan Federcasse and its suffocating bureaucratic superstructure logic.
"The desire to keep the flag of independence high was and is the first, but not the only, reason that prompted the Bcc of Cambiano, having the necessary requisites, i.e. assets exceeding 200 million euros, to choose the path of autonomy by immediately refusing to join the new national group dominated by Federcasse, as envisaged by the reform, which would reduce the bank to a cog lacking autonomy as part of an elephantine, costly and penalizing mechanism and, moreover, not fully shared by the participating BCCs themselves (as the recent chronicles of the BCC movement unfortunately demonstrate). But together with the choices of the heart and fidelity to its original values, which are represented by the ever-living union represented by efficiency and solidarity, it was the bet on the future, as was the winning one at the end of the 70s with the exit from Federcasse Toscana and by the structures of the Bcc movement, which pushed Cambiano towards the spa” commented the President Paolo Regini.
The General Manager Francesco Bosio then explained that "The path took place with a complex corporate operation, which obtained the consent of the European Central Bank and the Bank of Italy through the transfer to Banca Agci spa of all its active and passive assets. The transferring company, the former Bcc di Cambiano, will maintain its headquarters in Castelfiorentino, will take on the corporate name of Ente Cambiano scpa with prevailing mutuality status and will take the form of parent bank with 92,58% of the capital of the new bank spa, and therefore included under the supervision of the Bank of Italy, .
"In its new guise as a spa, Cambiano will not change its identity, made up of constant attention to the moral values and behavioral transparency of banking, but the "tradition-innovation" and "sociality-market" mix possible in the new corporate context will open up other growth opportunities, without, however, chasing the sirens of the deceptive finance of derivative products or the alchemies of subordinated bonds, which Cambiano has never had and will never have, but aiming to be more and more and better a bank well established in the territory at the service of the real economy. This has always been and will always be a friendly bank, a bank that knows how to listen and that knows how to support those who deserve credit and those looking for a safe haven for their savings”, Bosio underlined.
During the meeting it was specified that the distinctive features of Banca Cambiano 1884 spa will be five:
1. centrality of people and relationships
2. trust and reputation
3. visibility and market access
4. pragmatism and team spirit
5. organizational flexibility and flexibility in the banking offer
“Constant – argued Regini and Bosio – will be the attention to strengthening the brand and market positioning of a solid and efficient bank like ours, which will continue to grow step by step even on new markets, always with an eye to profitability and credit quality. Adjusting the management balance to the logic of a joint-stock bank and easier access to the capital market are objectives within the reach of the new bank and will translate into advantages for all interested parties such as shareholders, employees, customers, families, companies, savers and the communities of the operating areas who will be able to appreciate the news that comes from a bank with an ancient heart but which knows how to bet on the future".
The new Banca Cambiano 1884 spa will see Paolo Regini confirmed as president and Francesco Bosio as general manager.
The 2016 financial year represents the 134th carried out under the name of the Banca di Credito Cooperativo di Cambiano and will record a net profit over a period of € 5 million with total funding estimated at € 2,565 billion which confirm, despite the current difficulties, the figure for 2015, while economic investments can be estimated at € 2,131 billion with an increase of around 5,2%. “Data – comments the bank – of absolute positivity that brilliantly celebrate a cycle and represent the values of a tradition to lay the foundations for a new perspective of growth and consolidation.
