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TIMELINE
1987: Sanpaolo Bank Ireland, subsidiary of Istituto Bancario San Paolo (IBSP), founded.
1998: Banca Commerciale Italiana (Ireland) PLC, subsidiary of Banca Commerciale Italiana (BCI), founded.
Sanpaolo Bank Ireland, a subsidiary of Istituto Bancario San Paolo (IBSP), was founded in Dublin in 1987. Its task was to manage the share package held by the latter in the Irish joint venture, GPA Jetprop ATR Ltd, which had been created based on an intergovernmental agreement between Italy and France to support the production of civil aircraft.
If Italy's banking system wished to work on an equal basis with its French partner in the joint venture, it was important that it provide financial packages to facilitate the sales of the aircraft.
A little over a decade later, in 1998, Comit Finance (Ireland) PLC, a BCI subsidiary founded in May 1994 on the premises of the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) in Dublin, was granted a license to operate as a bank, changing its name to Banca Commerciale Italiana (Ireland) PLC. The bank dealt exclusively with corporate clients, providing neither counter nor current account services.
Following the merger processes, the bank was first renamed Banca Intesa (Ireland) PLC and later Intesa Sanpaolo Ireland. |