Italian Bank’s Swiss Subsidiary Sees Healthy Profit Growth

Contributing Editor

19 July 2005

Banca Fideuram Swiss operations saw its operating profit rise 36 per cent in 2004 to SFr2.8 million , against a 3 per cent rise in revenues, according to its recently released annual report. Domiciled in Zurich, but managed from Lugano, the bank had 23 employees and client assets of Sfr1.2 billion at the end of last year. It is a subsidiary of Fideuram Bank , which is controlled by Banca Fideuram in Rome, which is in turn part of the Sanpaolo IMI banking group of Turin. The bank said Mario Cuccia and Elisabetta Petrucci resigned as directors at the end of last year. They were replaced by Salvatore Maccarone and Claudio Sozzini. In May the bank reported a 31 per cent rise in first quarter profits of $72 million for its entire operations. The Milan-based bank, which has a large private client business, said assets under management rose 1.3 per cent to €60.2 billion in the same period from the end-2004 figure. Earlier this year the bank announced a major growth strategy under a three-year plan. Fideuram said it aims to have around €76 billion in total assets under management by the end of 2007, up from €59.5 billion at the end of 2004. The bank wants to see asset growth of €10 billion a year in net now inflows, implying a compound annual growth rate of between 7.5 per cent and 8.5 per cent during the next three years. According to the plan, net commissions should rise 36 per cent to around €650 million by 2007, from €479 million in 2003. Operating costs, meanwhile, should rise only 10 per cent, to just over €400 million from €365 million. Fideuram saw major changes in its senior management last year with its chief executive Ugo Rossolo leaving the company late last year, after Sanpaolo IMI, one of Italy’s largest banks, took control of the insurance division. This led to the departure of other Fideuram executives and financial promoters. Fideuram is now headed by Giuseppe Rosnati.