Halfway through his conversation with Euromoney, Mauro Micillo, head of Intesa Sanpaolo’s investment banking division, asks us to guess how much of its client business comes from outside Italy.
This is the EU’s biggest bank by market capitalization after BNP Paribas and Banco Santander, with a balance sheet of almost €1 trillion. Its valuation is higher than BNPP and Santander, and its market cap is bigger than banks that are larger by assets, Deutsche Bank or Societe Generale. Yet that is mainly thanks to having by far the biggest share of Italian retail banking – including large fee-generative businesses in asset management and wealth management. It is far less known as an international player.
We think about it. Corporate and investment banking is naturally a more international business than retail. The division, for which Intesa Sanpaolo retains the old IMI brand – harking back to an investment bank that played a vital role in Italy’s post-war reconstruction – had an annual operating income of around €4 billion over the past two years.
We have had a great expansion of international activities over the past 10 years, but we did it without compromising our cost/income ratio
But the group is still best known as an Italian national champion.
