 | |
| Formerly |
|
|---|---|
| Company type | Società per Azioni |
| BIT: BPE FTSE MIB Component | |
| ISIN | IT0000066123 |
| Industry | Financial services |
| Predecessor |
|
| Founded |
|
| Headquarters | , Italy |
Number of locations | 1273 |
Area served | 18 out of 20 regions of Italy |
Key people | Gianni Franco Papa (CEO), Fabio Cerchiai (Chairman) |
| Services | Retail and corporate banking, insurance |
 €2,540billion[1] (2021) | |
| Total assets | €204,839 billion (Q3 2025)[2] |
| Total equity | €11,564 billion[3] (2021) |
| Subsidiaries | |
| Capital ratio | 15.82% (CET1) |
| Website | bper.it |
| Footnotes / references inconsolidated financial statement[4] | |
BPER Banca S.p.A., formerly known asBanca Popolare dell'Emilia Romagna S.C., is an Italian banking group offering traditional banking services to individuals, corporate and public entities.[5] The company is based inModena and is a constituent of theFTSE MIB index.
The bank had branches in most of Italy, but not in Aosta Valley and Friuli – Venezia Giulia.[6] The bank is a majority shareholder of Piedmontese bankCassa di Risparmio di Bra andSaluzzo, as well as minority shareholders ofFossano andSavigliano.
BPER has been designated as a Significant Institution since the entry into force ofEuropean Banking Supervision in late 2014, and as a consequence is directly supervised by theEuropean Central Bank.[7][8]
Banca Popolare dell'Emilia was formed by the merger of Banca Popolare di Modena (founded in 1867) withBanca Cooperativa di Bologna on 29 December 1983. The bank merged withBanca Popolare di Cesena to formBanca Popolare dell'Emilia Romagna on 1 May 1992.[9] The bank acquired and absorbed many provincial and regional-level Community Banks (Italian:Banca Popolare) and Savings Banks (Italian:Cassa di Risparmio) from the 1990s to the 2010s.
In February 2013, BPER acquired an additional 35.98% stake of CR Bra S.p.A. from the banking foundation of CR Bra for around €23.9 million. After the deal, BPER owned a 67% stake.[13]
The bank was affected by Decree-Law N°3 of 2015, which required banks with assets more than €8 billion to transform fromCooperative societies (S.C.) toSocietà per Azioni (from one person one vote to one share one vote).
In 2016 the controlling stake inCassa di Risparmio di Saluzzo was acquired from the banking foundation of CR Saluzzo. On 14 July 2016 a gross value of €450 million bad loans (the most doubtful non-performing loans) were sold toAlgebris NPL Fund andCerberus European Investments without recourse.[14] Italian banks had the highest gross NPLs to total loan ratio in the European Union (18% at 31 December 2015);[15] BPER Group's gross NPLs to total loan ratio was 23.28% at 31 December 2015, or €11.395 billion in size in gross;Banco di Sardegna along had €2 billion as well as highest ratio among the group.
In late 2016 the bank was re-incorporated asBPER Banca S.p.A., as part of the mandatory process, the bank offered to buy back the shares for €3.8070, based on the historical price of the bank.[16] However, no share was repurchased,[17] and the market value of the bank in the Borsa returned to above that price.
On 2 March 2017, BPER Banca signed a contract to acquireNuova Cassa di Risparmio di Ferrara for a nominal fee of €1. On 30 June the deal was completed.[18]
In February 2019, BPER Banca announced the acquisition ofUnipol Banca from Unipol and UnipolSai. The takeover was completed in July 2019 and on 25 November 2019, Unipol Banca was incorporated into BPER Banca.
In 2020, BPER entered into an agreement withIntesa Sanpaolo to acquire 532 branches the latter will have to shed as a result of regulatory obligations resulting from its successful acquisition of rivalUBI Banca.
In February 2022, BPER Banca acquiredBanca Carige.[19]
On 7 February 2025, BPER Banca launched a €4.3bn takeover bid forBanca Popolare di Sondrio.[20] By 11 July 2025, BPER Banca acquired a majority stake in Banca Popolare di Sondrio with of 58.49% of the shares and further increased its stake to 80.69% by the end of July, thus granting BPER Banca the control of the Lombardian lender.[21] On 5 November 2025, the boards of BPER Banca and Banca Popolare di Sondrio approved the merger by absorption of Banca Popolare di Sondrio into BPER Banca, planned for April 2026.[22]
| Shareholder | Stake (% of ordinary shares) |
|---|---|
| Unipol | 19.9% |
| Fondazione di Sardegna | 7.4% |
| BlackRock | 5.0% |
| JPMorgan Chase | 5.0% |
| Other shareholders | 62.7% |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
