THE BANKER AWARDS 2010: INTESA SANPAOLO NAMED “BANK OF THE YEAR IN WESTERN EUROPE”

• The Group also wins the titles of BEST BANK IN ITALY and BEST BANK IN SERBIA thanks to Banca Intesa Beograd
• The three prestigious awards were presented at the official ceremony in London yesterday

London, 3rd December 2010 – The Intesa Sanpaolo Group has been named “Bank of the Year in Western Europe” by THE BANKER, the authoritative, London-based financial magazine (Financial Times Group). The award was announced last night at the award ceremony held in Park Lane.

The award, considered the “standard for banking excellence” by the finance world, was assigned by the judges on the basis of the sound performance over the last 12 months throughout a period characterized by global uncertainty. The Banker’s judges were also impressed by the range of tailor-made customer initiatives launched by Intesa Sanpaolo to assist liquidity and capitalization among its small and medium-sized enterprise clients.

THE BANKER also named Intesa Sanpaolo Best Bank in Italy 2010, while Banca Intesa Beograd, a member of the Group since 2005, was named Best Bank in Serbia, an award collected by its CEO Draginja Đurić.

“I am really very proud of these awards,” remarked Corrado Passera, adding that “Intesa Sanpaolo has been one of the few big banking groups which went through the crisis with its own resources and delivering sound results.”
“In these times of widespread uncertainty,” he concluded, “now more than ever banks need to be responsible in business, ensuring sustainable profits while supporting with conviction the real economy in the countries in which they operate.”

The Intesa Sanpaolo Group
Intesa Sanpaolo is among the top banking groups in the euro zone, and leader in Italy in all business areas (retail, corporate and wealth management). Thanks to a network of approximately 5,900 branches capillary and well distributed throughout the country, it offers its services to about 11.3 million customers.

Intesa Sanpaolo has a selected presence in Central-Eastern Europe and in the Mediterranean basin with a network of approximately 1,800 branches and 8.6 million customers. Moreover, the international network specialised in supporting corporate customers is present in 30 countries.
 
Intesa Sanpaolo Beograd
Banca Intesa Beograd, 93% owned by the Group, has a network of 206 branches and serves 1.5 million customers. Established in 1991 as Delta Banka, it was acquired by Banca Intesa in 2005. In December 2007 the bank merged with Panonska Banka (San Paolo IMI) to create the country’s largest bank by total assets.

The strong growth borne out by recent trends has enabled the subsidiary to consolidate its leadership of the Serbian market.

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