Brescia and Bergamo, the end of a century and a half of banking history

There are few reasons expressed among Brescia and Bergamo on the successful takeover bid by Intesa on Ubi: the bank that had collected within itself a century and a half of credit and finance history in this part of the country. The comments even more, limited to bare news. Only the president of the industrialists, historical customer of Intesa, has expressed from the beginning the need to have an even bigger agreement. More subtle was the intervention of Ettore Prandini, leader of Coldiretti, in support of the hunting bank that put an end to that world that has always opposed and fought hard against his father's political vicissitudes.  

The few comments clung to the story of a story that one would like to see renewed in the new one, Piedmontese and Milanese, without interruption. It also appears to be aimed at this same horizon the intervention of Giovanni Bazoli on Repubblica. A reading, that of the honorary president of Intesa, through the lens of a nostalgic journey made in the past but which overlooks the errors, uncertainties, underestimations and the many clevernesses that have marked the last thirty years of the now lost Bank . 

Pure poetry, if there weren't that hint of the error charged to thelast CEO of Ubi Victor Massiah five years ago: that of failing to make acquisitions or alliances in good time. But with whom it should concretely ally and in what way it flies over. If memory serves, they were years in which the dominus it was he, the banker from Brescia, a pupil of Andreatta, called (because he was among the smallest in size) to put his hand to the disaster of the Ambrosiano di Calvi. A dominus finally chosen by Enrico Cuccia with the Comit and by the Agnellis with the San Paolo of Turin. 

One could clearly say of a UBI bought on the "value" and not on "values”, due to a swap that appeared unattractive at the beginning. “Too little!” those of the besieged Bank reacted. The offer was rushed replenished with cash mid-ride. “We want something more!” they replied from the Ubi without taking into account the hunger for liquidity of the numerous heirs of the founding fathers. The total volume of Intesa's commitments has further increased due to the increase in adhesions up to 90% and will certainly be increased to acquire the remainder from the totality. 

Problems that Intesa will address in due course. Today the firepower has routed the Ubi blockhouse within which, for some time, a rift had been simmering between the large partners, which widened with the stamp duty and the opening of insidious trials in Bergamo and Brescia. Some of these partners have been ready to surrender for some time, provided they are well paid with the addition of a subtle revenge against those who had deprived them of positions and positions considered a hereditary right. 

That Victor Massiah did not realize in good time an internal situation that demanded the fielding of an articulate defense and barrels of powder in the Santa Barbara is the key to understanding much of the whole affair. To the delay in taking up arms we must add her extraneousness, combined with that of Letizia Moratti, to the world of Brescian and Bergamo tradition perched in time and curled up around the bank more than in parties or rectory. 

Finally, a decisive and unforgivable mistake was that of not having understood, right from the start, that the launch of the Public Offer concluded an underground and growing relationship of political and institutional protection woven for many months by Carlo Messina. To the shock force of Intesa and yours political and media alliances it is worth adding the deep-rooted and growing contradictions that have crossed the complex history of the Ubi which has roots in 1869 for the Catholic part and in 1883 for the secular one. The ones born to guarantee through credit the power of a Church questioned by weak point of Porta Pia. 

The others, sons of the Risorgimento, decided to go beyond the limits of mutual aid societies to entrust the progress of industry and agriculture to capital. A division, that of the origins, quickly healed with the division, desired by the fascist regime, of the intransigent, very Brescian and very Catholic Banca Perlasca. Since then, only the simplistic narration of the chronicles has continued the vulgate of the diversity of the two Banks, ignoring the iron reality of common interests, family ties and patrimonies de facto prone to the final marriage. 

Marriage promised and sometimes postponed, from year to year, waiting for the historical reference shareholder base to "thinner" in the fluctuating dynastic vicissitudes and those of their businesses, leaving the destinies of the two banking institutes in few hands. Marriage celebrated even after the sentimental fall in love with Bipop and the financial drunkenness that has crossed this Lombardy, from Lodi to Brescia, with the magic tricks of Hopa and its magician "Chicco" Gnutti. From that season today Unipol will support Banca di Reggio e dell'Emilia in absorbing the 500 Ubi branches and all its insurance activities. 

The takeover bid also closes the season of corporate engineering developed in Brescia and tested on several occasions through federative agreements, takeovers, affiliations, rapid statutory passages from popular bank to joint-stock company and vice versa. A slalom between banking rules and the civil law which multiplied the boards of directors and satellite companies in such numbers as to satisfy the aspirations of the many and the real power of the few. The procedures of a disciplined co-optation in offices have for years kept away the restlessness and signs of rebellion of some new protagonists of the local economy who had neither the time nor the desire to get in line waiting for the call.

The revolt of some large shareholders in recent years has shown the short and frayed cover of the federative and dynastic model set up between Brescia and Bergamo. As well as the judicial queue that makes many tremble and that the Public Offer will perhaps delay in time but that it will not be able to put in the attic. In the two cities there will be political and social upheavals. Credit and the bank constituted in fact the cement of a professional power block which supported the Christian Democrat left in politics and then, for national events, the alliance with the remnants of what was once the PCI.

The rich and well-funded Foundations, a direct emanation of the two banks, have played an essential role in the cultural and social life of the two provinces. Law firms, university professorships, generous assignments, million-dollar consultancies in the large merger operations of the Municipal companies and in the services have had their delivery room inside the Bank and bear the usual names and surnames. Vincents. Rich. Powerful. But myopic. Until a few years ago, the open articulation of Italian society allowed for a social lift based on individual talent and ability.

Reason for which the privilege guaranteed to the world of bank members did not hinder the growth of those who were excluded. Luigi Lucchini was an example. Many have not felt the change of times and dominus they no longer held the reins. Cattolica Assicurazioni was also Brescian by vocation. Also secular. Today the lion of Generali is preparing to take a bite. The great signs of decadence are followed by those that are apparently small but of gigantic significance.

These days, in Valle Camonica, the cradle of Lombard Catholic finance, the Dorotee nuns are closing their school which began in 1866, for an imbalance of 180 euros a year. They have not found help, or a guarantee or a helping hand as we say here in the mountains.