Credito Emiliano

Credito Emiliano S.p.A. (Credem) is an Italian bank based in Reggio Emilia, Emilia-Romagna. It was founded in Italy 1910. The company is a component of FTSE Italia Mid Cap Index.

The company has several internal divisions: Credem Banca (retail banking), Credem Banca d'Impresa (corporate banking) and Credem Private Banking.

Credem has been designated in 2015 as a Significant Institution under the criteria of European Banking Supervision, and as a consequence is directly supervised by the European Central Bank.

Credem has received widespread media attention because it stores wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese as collateral for loans.

History
Founded in 1910 as Banca Agricola Commerciale di Reggio Emilia, the bank changed its name to Credito Emiliano in 1983. At that time the bank also acquired Banca Belinzaghi of Milan, starting its expansion. In 1991 Istituto Bancario Siciliano was acquired, followed by Banca di Girgenti and Banca Industriale Agricola di Radicena.

In 1999, the bank was ranked 8th in terms of branches on Sicily island.

Inclusion in research
According to a research by Mediobanca, Credito Emiliano was ranked the 11th largest bank in Italy by total assets as of 31 December 2015, despite several banking group being included in the research. If including central banks, postal savings and subsidiaries of foreign banking groups, the bank was ranked 10th (9th among retail and commercial conglomerates if omitting investment banks and insurance-bank conglomerates of Italy such as Banca Mediolanum and Mediobanca).

Parmigiano Reggiano cheese wheels as collateral
Credito Emiliano has received widespread publicity from major organizations such as Forbes, due to the fact that they hold wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese as collateral for debt, as opposed to holding assets such as gold.

In fact, the bank itself is actually backed by the wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano, rather than bars of gold like conventional banks. The reason behind this is that Parmigiano Reggiano cheese not only holds its value, but it actually increases in value, because the more the cheese ages, the more delicious and valuable it becomes. According to the case, "Eighteen-month cheese gives pasta zing. Thirty-six-month cheese makes angels sing."

Shareholders
On 1 January 1993, Credito Emiliano Holding was formed as the holding company for the bank. Currently owned 75.57% stake, with the rest were floated in Borsa Italiana. The largest shareholders of Credem Holding were Cofimar S.r.l. and Max Mara Finance S.r.l., which in turn owned 29.44% and 8.30% stake of the bank respectively.

Acquisitions
Between 1994 to 1998, the group acquired the following


 * Banca Popolare Vittorio Emanuele di Paternò
 * Banca Euromobiliare
 * BCC Corleone
 * Banca Creditwest e dei Comuni Vesuviani
 * Banca Tamborino Sangiovanni
 * Banca Popolare San Marco Argentano
 * BCC Ciminna, BCC Bonifati
 * BCC Curinga
 * Banca dei Comuni Nolani
 * 3 branches of Deutsche Bank in Catania
 * BCC San Giovanni Gemini
 * Banca della Provincia di Napoli.

From 1999 to 2008 the group acquired the following


 * Banca Popolare Dauna
 * BCC Fortore-Miscano
 * BCC San Fili, BCC Jonica
 * BCC Alto Crotonese
 * Banca Popolare Andriese
 * Banca dei Laghi
 * Banca di Latina
 * Euromobiliare Corporate Finance
 * Credimmobili
 * Anteprima

Subsidiaries and joint ventures

 * Banks
 * Euromobiliare Bank
 * Specialized banks
 * Credemleasing
 * Credemfactor
 * Credem Private Equity SGR
 * Euromobiliare Fiduciaria
 * Euromobiliare Asset Management SGR
 * Insurance companies
 * Credemvita
 * Credemassicurazioni (50-50 joint venture with Reale Mutua Assicurazioni)