Milano, 02 January 2003

Banca Intesa reached an agreement with Crédit Agricole Indosuez for the sale of 100% of share capital of IntesaBci Bank (Suisse), its subsidiary mainly operating in the private banking sector.

This transaction is one of the actions contemplated by Banca Intesa’s 2003-2005 Business Plan to strengthen Gruppo Intesa in the field of private banking in Italy also through the strategic alliance with Crédit Agricole Group. This alliance is aimed at securing optimum economies of scale and scope in order to provide specialised and integrated services to both Groups’ private banking customers, who will rely on the Gruppo Intesa services in Italy and on the Crédit Agricole Group services in the rest of the world.

The selling price of IntesaBci Bank (Suisse) will be fixed after the approval of its 2002 financial statements’ figures.
 

As at September 30th 2002, IntesaBci Bank (Suisse) had assets under management amounting to approximately €2,300 million, shareholders’ equity of about €90 million and around 7,000 clients.

The completion of the transaction is subject to the approval of the competent authorities in the Countries involved.