Italy banking: How Carige beat the clock

Banca Carige pulled off a recapitalization last December that even chief executive Paolo Fiorentino thought difficult. It raised more than four times its market cap, just ahead of an ECB deadline. Euromoney asks how he did it and how the bank can reward its investors.



IN ADDITION
Italy: home of the brave banks

With a vital recapitalization of Banca Carige in the balance, a stranger approached Paolo Fiorentino late at night in the narrow medieval streets leading to his apartment in Genoa. “We will do it,” said the unknown man, grabbing the newly arrived chief executive’s arm and looking him intently in the eyes.

Fiorentino recounts the incident as proof of Carige’s status and goodwill in Genoa, and of his own new-found local celebrity.