A bankrupt bank that becomes the first bank in Italy. This is the strange case of Intesa Sanpaolo told by Carlo Bellavite Pellegrini in the book "An Italian story", with a preface by Jean-Paul Fitoussi. The volume was presented today in Rome: in addition to the author, the premier Enrico Letta, the number one of the Supervisory Board of Intesa Sanpaolo Giovanni Bazoli and the president of Assolombarda Gianfelice Rocca were also present.
Intesa Sanpaolo was born from the merger of two banking groups, Banca Intesa and Sanpaolo Imi. The volume tells the story of one of these two banks starting from 1982, when the Nuovo Banco Ambrosiano, which later became Banca Intesa, saw the light. Born in dramatic circumstances from the ruins of the Banco Ambrosiano di Calvi, the new Institute then followed a path of growth, acquiring and integrating some of the major Italian banks.
“The situation in 1982 was really critical – recalled Bazoli -, but when we recovered we even became the object of external appetites. How can we explain our journey? First with pride and a sense of belonging, with our refusal to deny the past. The second factor was the design of men like Andreatta and Ciampi. Finally, luck also played a role, because we were in a macro phase favorable to development".
In reconstructing the events, the author has used various sources: from the official ones of the banks incorporated over time to the testimonies of some protagonists, up to the unpublished diaries of Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.
