BPER Banca

Banca Popolare dell'Emilia was formed by the merger of Banca Popolare di Modena (founded in 1867) with Banca Cooperativa di Bologna on 29 December 1983. The bank merged with Banca Popolare di Cesena to form Banca Popolare dell'Emilia Romagna on 1 May 1992. 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.

2000s

In 2005, Cassa di Risparmio di Vignola was privatized for about €33 million. The remaining 23.913% of shares were sold by the banking foundation. In 2006, the minority interests in Cassa di Risparmio di Bra, Fossano, Saluzzo and Savigliano were acquired from UniCredit for about €149 million.

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. The bank was affected by Decree-Law N°3 of 2015, which required banks with assets more than €8 billion to transform from Cooperative societies (S.C.) to Società per Azioni (from one person one vote to one share one vote).

In 2016, the controlling stake in Cassa 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 to Algebris NPL Fund and Cerberus European Investments without recourse. Italian banks had the highest gross NPLs to total loan ratio in the European Union (18% at 31 December 2015); 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 as BPER 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. However, no share was repurchased, 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 acquire Nuova Cassa di Risparmio di Ferrara for a nominal fee of €1. On 30 June the deal was completed. In February 2019, BPER Banca announced the acquisition of Unipol Banca from Unipol and UnipolSai. The takeover was completed in July 2019 and on 25 November 2019, Unipol Banca was incorporated into BPER Banca.

2020s

In 2020, BPER entered into an agreement with Intesa Sanpaolo to acquire 532 branches the latter will have to shed as a result of regulatory obligations resulting from its successful acquisition of rival UBI Banca. In February 2022, BPER Banca acquired Banca Carige. On 7 February 2025, BPER Banca launched a €4.3bn takeover bid for Banca Popolare di Sondrio. 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. 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, which was effectively completed in April 2026.

ABF Factoring (2004–2010)

Banca della Campania (2003–2014)

Banca del Monte di Foggia (1998–2006)

Banca Popolare di Aprilia (1998–?)