Crédit Agricole’s €737 million cash bid for Credito Valtellinese (Creval) has disappointed those hoping for an approach on Banco BPM, Italy’s third largest bank.
Given Crédit Agricole’s capital strengths, a deal with Banco BPM might have strengthened the top tier of Italian banking and boosted eurozone financial integration, but it was probably wishful thinking.
For more than a decade, Philippe Brassac, chief executive of Crédit Agricole’s listed arm (CASA), has won political capital in the group by pushing for a reorientation – strategically and in the governance – back towards its member-owned retail banks in France.
He has done so by railing against CASA’s pre-2008 mistakes, including investment banking over-exuberance and botched bank purchases in Greece and Portugal.
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