Banca Popolare Di Vicenza

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Between 2002 and 2004, the Bank continued to expand its territorial coverage in the central regions of Italy by acquiring a 79 per cent stake in the share capital of Cassa di Risparmio di Prato and in the south of Italy by acquiring 30 bank branches in Sicily.

The Veneto region, where the Bank's activities are mainly concentrated, is highly industrialised.

The region has many small and medium sized companies, representing a wide section of industries such as engineering, textile, clothing, leather, tanning and gold jewellery.The Bank is recognised world-wide as one of the few gold banks operating in Italy and from 2003 onwards, started dealing in the silver sector too.

The Bank has two Representative Offices in China (Hong Kong and Shanghai) and one in India (New Delhi). It has established a partnership with Austrian Volksbank Group, as a minority shareholder of eight banks located in central European countries (Slovenia, Croatia, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia, and Czech Republic).

Over the past 140 years, the Bank has evolved into a universal bank, offering retail banking, corporate banking, private banking, insurance, credit cards, asset management, and investment Banca Popolare di Vicenza, with a history of more

than 140 years, is the 12th largest banking group in Italy.

Global overview of Banca Popolare di Vicenza

Banca Popolare di Vicenza, founded in 1866, was the first bank to be constituted in Vicenza and the first popular bank of the Veneto region of Italy. It belongs to the BPVI Group, which also includes two other Italian banks, Cassa di

Risparmio di Prato (in Tuscany) and Banca Nuova (in Sicily).The group is the 12th largest banking group in Italy and has 550 branches, with more than 4,500 employees.Through its subsidiaries, BPVI operates in the assurance sector (Berica Vita and Vicenza Life), merchant banking and private equity (Nordest Merchant, Nem Sgrand BPV Finance) and in private banking (BPVI Fondi SGR).

Banca Popolare di Vicenza has grown over the years through a combination of organic and inorganic strategy. It has invested to build a large distribution network and also grown through a series of acquisitions of small popular banks.

Between 1985 and 1996 it had widened its territorial coverage throughout the north-eastern regions of Italy (Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia) after the acquisition of several small banks.

Company Mode of presence in India Year of entry Key business

Banca Popolare Representative Office 2006 Banking services

di Vicenza

Italian_company in India final.qxd 2/10/07 6:03 PM Page 20

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21 banking services.The BPVI Group posted a net

income of Euro 65.7 million as on year ending 30th June 2006. It had total consolidated funds of Euro 31.12 billion, stockholders equity of Euro 2.28 billion and had disbursed net total loans of Euro 15.94 billion as on 30th June 2006.

Banca Popolare di Vicenza in India

Banca Popolare di Vicenza opened its

Representative Office in New Delhi on 1st June 2006 to provide financial services to Italian firms keen to do business in India.The Representative Office provides direct assistance to Italian

entrepreneurs, who want to have business tie-ups with Indian companies. Similarly, the Bank also offers services to Indian entrepreneurs, who would like to have business links with their Italian counterparts.

The Bank manages payment operations from Italy to India, and vice versa, between corporate houses of the two nations and provides finance and credit lines to entrepreneurs directly and through local banks. Other services provided by the Representative Office include commercial promotion of Italian products with Indian

customers, providing research reports on business opportunities and potential customer information to Italian customers, facilitating the business of Italian customers with commercial information regarding local companies, and other allied services.

The last includes arranging for services of Indian lawyers, chartered accountants, property dealers, interpreters, etc, for Italian clients planning to set up business in India. From its office in New Delhi, the Bank manages its relationships with its large clientele base in the automotive, textile, food and agro processing businesses in Italy.

Besides meeting the requirements of its clients in India, the New Delhi Representative Office also manages the Bank's business relationship with

Pakistan, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan.

Key success factors in India

Fast decision making

The Bank is renowned for being a nimble player in the industry and is able to take quick decisions on complex business issues, especially those involving small and medium enterprises (SME), thus giving the Bank a competitive advantage over other larger banks.

Orientation towards customer service and building confidence in clients

One of the common concerns of the Bank's Italian clients wanting to enter India is the risk associated with investing in a developing economy. Hence, the Bank continuously tries to build confidence in the minds of its customers regarding the attractiveness and safety of India as an investment destination.The Bank also strives to provide a complete range of products and services to its clients in an environment oriented towards customer service.

Expertise in operations related to SME Most of the Bank's business in Italy is in the SME segment and the Bank has a strong experience of more than 140 years in servicing this segment.

It understands the specific customer requirements of the SME segment and offers tailor-made financial products and consulting services to them. It also arranges finance for Indian importers buying machinery from Italy, having a tenure ranging from six months to five years, and the facility to avail the same in foreign currency.

Collaborations with important Indian partners

The Bank has a tie up with EXIM bank and correspondent banking arrangements with other leading banks and financial institutions in India

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to facilitate its customers with reliable and timely services.

Experienced staff

The Indian Representative Office has a staff that has a vast experience and sound knowledge about Indian economic and political conditions, thus providing their customer with appropriate advice.

Future plans

Italy has announced 2007 as the year for doing business with India.With this background, the Bank is already planning to take advantage of this opportunity by offering a variety of products and services to its clients. It plans to leverage the experience and market expertise that it has

gathered in the Eastern European countries to help the Indian business houses with any assistance that it may need to set up a base there or establish any kind of business relationships there.

The Bank is also planning to have a Representative Office in Mumbai (Maharashtra) in the near future, to enable it to serve its customers over a wider geographical area.

The Bank is targeting to achieve a significant share of the Indo-Italian trade, by offering its services to both Italian and Indian customers. Further, it would like to get involved in various activities for the growth and development of trade between both the countries.

The Bank foresees a lot of potential in the Indian retail and SME sectors. It, therefore, seeks to make a complete assessment of the Indian markets over the next couple of years, before taking an appropriate decision regarding setting up of branches in India, in the post 2009 scenario of the opening up of the Indian Banking sector.

Banca Popolare di Vicenza's India operations

• Entered India in 2006 and operates through its Representative Office in New Delhi

• Facilitates business relationships between Italian and Indian companies

• Manages payments operations between the two countries, offers finance and credit lines to entrepreneurs as well as a host of other services, like information on Indian markets, access to other service providers like lawyers, chartered accountants, etc

• Also manages the Bank's business relationship with other Asian countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bhutan