One or more members of the new board of Intesa Sanpaolo, who will be elected at the next shareholders' meeting in April, will hopefully have to "bring knowledge on the subject of foreign countries and internationalization strategies possibly by virtue of experience in top management positions in a large international bank" and the future president should have "a recognized international standing". This is how the Supervisory Board of Intesa Sanpaolo, chaired by Giovanni Bazoli, drew up, as per practice, its indications for the new organization chart at the top of the bank which abandoned the dual governance system to return to the classic one-tier system based on the board of directors.
The Supervisory Board will not be decisive in the choice of the new board but its exit has caused quite a stir in the financial community, both because it follows almost word for word a recent letter sent by the ECB to the bank led by Carlo Messina, whose confirmation in the role of ad is out of the question, both because references to the international stature of the future president do not seem to indicate a confirmation of Gian Maria Gros-Pietro, outgoing president and renowned industrial economist but whose experience was and is predominantly national.
The choices on the future board will in reality be up to the shareholders of Intesa, which although largely international, will in reality be influenced by the weight of the two main banking foundations, the Compagnia Sanpaolo of Turin and above all the Cariplo of the always very powerful president of Acri, Joseph Guzzetti. It will be up to them to decide, but the indications of Bazoli, always closely listened to by Guzzetti, seem to favor a new president of international standing, such as the former general manager of the Bank of Italy and former minister of the Economy, Fabrizio Saccomanni, or Domenico Siniscalco, also a former minister of the economy and current country manager for Italy and vice president of Morgan Stanley, who is actually the only one to have an operational position in a large international bank. On the other hand, the chances of former minister Vittorio Grilli, who recently joined JP Morgan, seem few.
