Credito Italiano

Credito Italiano also known as just Credit, was an Italian bank, now part of UniCredit. It was merged with Unicredito in 1998, forming Unicredito Italiano (now UniCredit). Circa 1999 to 2002 UniCredit created a new subsidiary of the same name to run the retail network of Credito Italiano. On 1 July 2002 the subsidiary received the assets of sister banks to become UniCredit Banca.

Founded on 28 April 1870 in Genoa as Banca di Genova, it took part in the establishment of Banca d'Italia and opened the first trans-atlantic banking business with Buenos Aires (1872). Local shareholders were local nobility (Pallavicino and Balbi), bankers (Quartara, Polleri) and merchants (Lagorio, Dodero, Bacigalupo), creating an initial capital of 3 million lira. It acquired "Banca Vonwiller" of Milan, but a large national financial crisis led to refinancing by German banks and name change to "Credito Italiano" (1895). Later, it acquired "Banca Manzi" of Rome (1901) and "Banca Meuricoffre" of Napoli (1905). Its headquarters moved to Piazza Cordusio in Milan, and, despite the Italo-Turkish War and World War I, it was able to open branch offices in London (1911) and New York City (1917), as well as in Paris and Berlin (1921). Later it acquired the "Banca del Monferrato", "Banca di Legnano", "Credito Varesino and the Swiss Banca Unione di Credito (1919), and in 1920 it joined the "Compagnia Finanziaria Nazionale" (1920); it also established "Banca Italo-cinese", the "Banca Italo Viennese" and "Tiroler Hauptbank" (1920), and contributed to the establishments of Banca Italo Egiziana (1924) and Banca Nazionale di Albania (1925).