Our Group's History

The first cooperative initiatives came into being in the first half of the 19th century, during the English industrial revolution, which upset the existing production structure and triggered a social reaction to the increasing inequality and exploitation of workers (Robert Owen, the Rochdale pioneers). This was followed by cooperative initiatives in France (Philippe Bouchez, Louis Blanc, Pierre Joseph Proudhon, Charles Gide) and in Germany (Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch), with the birth of popular banks and, in 1862, of the first Raiffeisen banking cooperative thanks to Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen, who combined economic pursuits with ethical motivations of Christian inspiration.

The first mutual aid associations emerged in Italy, especially in Piedmont, during the revolution of 1848. They spread rapidly and formed the first organisational foundation of the cooperative movement. But it was in 1883 that the first Rural Bank (Cassa Rurale) was established in Loreggia, in the province of Padua, by a landowner named Leone Wollemborg, using Raiffeisen's efforts as a model. This was followed in 1884 by the Rural Bank of Cambiano di Castelfiorentino in the province of Florence, and that of Trebaseleghe, also in the province of Padua.

In 1890, thanks to the hard work of a young priest, Don Luigi Cerutti, the first Catholic Rural Bank was founded in Gambarare, in the province of Venice. In 1891, Pope Leo XIII's encyclical Rerum Novarum became the manifesto of the widespread movement in support of credit cooperation inspired by the church's Magisterium. From then on, Catholic Rural Savings Banks spread extensively thanks to the work of enlightened priests (including Don Lorenzo Guetti, Don Luigi Sturzo, Don Carlo De Cardona) and prominent representatives of the Catholic culture of the time (one of them being the economist Giuseppe Toniolo, proclaimed Blessed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012).

The Rural Banks – whose first regulatory provisions were set out in Italian Law no. 4276 of 1887 on agrarian credit and the first organic discipline in Italian Law no. 65 of 1932 – became Rural and Artisan Banks with the Consolidated Law on Rural and Artisan Banks (TUCRA), issued with Italian Royal Decree no. 1706/1937, which regulates the activity of cooperative companies whose main purpose is to grant credit to farmers and artisans.

Iccrea Banca nasce il 30 novembre del 1963, quando i rappresentanti di 190 Casse Rurali si riuniscono a Roma per stipulare l’atto costitutivo dell’Istituto di Credito delle Casse Rurali e Artigiane (CRA).

Ispirata come le prime Casse Rurali dell’Ottocento al pensiero cristiano sociale espresso dall’enciclica Rerum Novarum di Leone XIII, Iccrea Banca viene costituita con lo scopo di far crescere l’attività delle CRA, agevolandone e coordinandone l’azione attraverso lo svolgimento di funzioni creditizie, l’intermediazione bancaria e l’assistenza finanziaria.
Iccrea Banca rappresenta la prima forma organizzativa di auto-gestione, lo strumento per rendere le Casse Rurali indipendenti dalle altre banche.
Guido Carli, Governatore della Banca d’Italia negli anni ’60, ne commenta così la funzione: «l’Iccrea (…) fu concepita come l’Istituto che doveva concorrere a fornire alle Casse i servizi che essi non potevano produrre autonomamente, e questo processo ha avuto successo tanto che oggi la Cassa di un piccolo centro della Valcamonica che conosco bene offre servizi paragonabili alla grande banca di una metropoli». Iccrea Banca rafforza progressivamente la propria funzione istituzionale, supportando le Casse Rurali e Artigiane italiane nel loro ruolo di banche a sostegno dello sviluppo dei territori.

The Rural and Artisan Banks became the current Cooperative Credit Banks with the consolidated act on banking and credit laws enacted by Italian Legislative Decree no. 385/1993 (TUB).

The new Consolidated Banking Act followed the EU path taken with Italian Legislative Decree no. 481/1992 and confirmed the end of the specialisation of Rural and Artisan Banks in agriculture and crafts (incompatible with an efficient management of the banking business), cancelling the limits on governance and operations and allowing the new Cooperative Credit Banks (BCCs) to open up their shareholding structures beyond just farmers and artisans and to offer all financial services and products on a par with other banks.

On 1 January 1994 the new Consolidated Banking Act (Italian Legislative Decree no.385/1993) came into effect, transforming the Rural and Artisan Banks into the current Cooperative Credit Banks (BCCs). In line with these regulatory developments, the reorganisation launched a legal entity capable of ensuring a homogeneous framework of direction and intent: Iccrea Holding was born which began to operate in 1995 with majority interest in Iccrea Banca, Banca Agrileasing and Aureo Gestioni.
Iccrea Holding (whose capital is owned by the Cooperative Credit Banks) is at the head of the Iccrea Banking Group, the group of companies that provides the BCCs with a competitive offer system set up for their more than 6 million customers and that brings together the companies that offer products and services for the operations of Cooperative Credit Banks (Institutional segment) and for their preferred customers: small and medium-sized enterprises (Corporate segment) and households (Retail segment).

After receiving the green light from their respective shareholders' meetings, on 16 September 2016 Iccrea Holding, the parent company of the Iccrea Banking Group, and Iccrea Banca, the Central Institute of Cooperative Credit, formalised the reverse merger between the two companies. Iccrea Banca incorporates Iccrea Holding.
Operational starting 1 October, the merger placed Iccrea Banca at the top of the Iccrea Banking Group and allowed the Group to have a parent company with a banking licence, complying with the requirements of the European Central Bank.

On 4 March 2019 the Iccrea Cooperative Banking Group was established following Italian Law no. 49 of 2016 (as amended), which reformed the Cooperative Credit system. The Group was formed with the participationbof 142 Cooperative Credit Banks that signed the cohesion contract together with the Parent Company Iccrea Banca.

The Cooperative Banking Group constitutes a new legal figure in the banking landscape. In fact, the group model set out in the legal reform is based on a contract – the cohesion contract – whose signing is a condition for the issuance and continuation of authorisation to conduct banking business in the form of a cooperative credit bank.

As envisaged in the cohesion contract, the Iccrea Cooperative Banking Group aims to strengthen the stability of its Participating Banks, facilitating the achievement of efficiency levels that are adequate for the markets of reference, compliance with Supervisory Provisions, as well as fostering the development of the shareholders and the local communities they operate in, cooperation and education on savings and welfare, as well as social cohesion and the responsible and sustainable growth of the surrounding regions.

For more on the challenges and opportunities of the Cooperative Banking Group go to the Conference.​​