Intesa Sanpaolo SPA Granted Australian Foreign ADI Licence
(29 December 2020 – Australia) The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has approved Italian lender Intesa Sanpaolo SPA for a foreign authorised deposit-taking institution (ADI) licence.
The Intesa Sanpaolo Group has a market capitalisation of €37 billion, 14.6 million customers and over 6,000 branches globally. The group offers retail, corporate banking and wealth management services. The Bank’s Sydney office will continue to report to Hong Kong, responsible for the Asia-Pacific, where the group also has offices in Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo, Beijing, Ho Chi Minh City, Mumbai and Seoul. The Bank’s Sydney representative office will become a fully operational branch in Q1 2021
French bank Société Générale was recently also granted a licence to operate as a foreign ADI in Q2 2019.
With the granting of an authority to carry on a banking business in Australia, it is able to open a branch in Australia, strengthening the group’s presence abroad where it is already active in more than 40 countries specialising in corporate banking in support of cross-border corporate customers and businesses. It has become the 22nd bank to be granted a licence to operate as a foreign ADI by APRA, and the first foreign ADI licence granted since APRA resumed licensing in Q2 2020.
"Australia is one of the most attractive international markets for Italian businesses. Intesa Sanpaolo will be the only Italian bank with a branch in the country" said Intesa Sanpaolo Head of the International Department within the IMI Corporate and Investment Banking Division, Gianluca Cugno.
"We are seeing a lot of European banks who have expertise in new areas such as renewable energy join the market here, whereas initially some of the Australian banks were slow or the return expectations were not to their liking" ABN AMRO CEO Sydney Branch, Peter Davis, previously stated on the international expansion ambitions of European banks abroad.
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