BCC Iccrea Group
Native name | ICCREA Banca | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Formerly | Istituto Centrale delle Casse Rurali ed Artigiane | ||||||
| Company type | S.p.a. owned by cooperative banks | ||||||
| Industry | Financial services | ||||||
| Founded | 1963 | ||||||
| Headquarters | Rome , Italy | ||||||
Area served | Italy | ||||||
| €2 billion (2024) | |||||||
| Total assets | €164.6 billion (2024) | ||||||
| Total equity | €15.9 billion (2024) | ||||||
| Subsidiaries |
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| Capital ratio |  12.04% (Group CET1 Capital ratio, Dec.2016) | ||||||
| Website | [1] [2] |
The BCC Iccrea Group () represents Italy’s foremost cooperative banking network, encompassing the majority of the nation’s cooperative credit institutions (BCC). At its core lies Iccrea Banca, previously known as the , acting as the primary national institution.
By early 2024, the group included 115 affiliated BCCs and held the position of Italy’s fourth-largest banking consortium, with consolidated assets totaling €175 billion as of the end of 2023.[1]
History
The origins of the BCC Iccrea Group are rooted in the cooperative banking movement that emerged across Europe during the 19th century, shaped by pioneers such as Franz Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch and Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen. Italy’s inaugural cooperative bank was established in Loreggia in 1883 by economist and politician Leone Wollemborg. Early umbrella organizations formed to represent these banks included the (1888), (1893), and (1909). After World War II, the was reconstituted in 1950 to serve as the national federation, later known as Federcasse.
In 1963, Federcasse founded ICCREA to function as the central financial institution supporting the cooperative network. Subsequently, distinct cooperative banking groups developed in South Tyrol and Trentino, leading to the creation of the South Tyrolean Raiffeisen Group and Gruppo Cassa Centrale Banca respectively.
The enactment of the 1994 Consolidated Banking Act unified Italian cooperative banks under the BCC designation nationwide, with South Tyrol as an exception. ICCREA Holding was formed in 1995 as a parent entity overseeing ICCREA Banca, ICCREA BancaImpresa, and related companies, with ownership primarily distributed among member BCCs. In 2014, principal shareholders included Banca di Credito Cooperativo di Roma (3.6%), Cassa Centrale Banca (2.82%), and Credito Cooperativo Ravennate e Imolese (2%).
Since late 2014, ICCREA has been classified as a significant financial institution under European Banking Supervision, subjecting it to direct oversight by the European Central Bank.
Following legislation passed in 2016 requiring all BCCs to be affiliated with a banking group, three groups emerged based in Rome (BCC Iccrea), Trento (Cassa Centrale Banca), and Bolzano (Raiffeisen). ICCREA Banca assumed the role of holding company through its absorption of ICCREA Holding, finalizing this restructuring by March 2019.[2] This integration brought all member BCCs under ECB supervision, strengthening both governance frameworks and market presence for the group.
Group structure
At the beginning of 2024, Iccrea Banca counted 134 shareholders, comprising 115 individual BCCs and 12 regional BCC associations affiliated with Federcasse, with no single entity holding more than a 10% stake. The bank refrains from publicly sharing comprehensive ownership details, and its website still displays outdated shareholder information from mid-2025. The group's financial resilience is supported by a "cohesion agreement" that guarantees assistance to any struggling BCC; in scenarios of group-wide difficulties, deposits remain safeguarded by the Fondo di Garanzia dei Depositanti del Credito Cooperativo (FGD), linked to Federcasse.
The group boasts an extensive geographical footprint, with BCCs active in 1,676 out of Italy’s 4,513 municipalities (approximately 37%) as of late 2024; notably, in 382 municipalities, the BCC operated as the exclusive banking institution. By the end of 2023, the workforce across both central bodies and individual BCCs totaled 22,416 employees.
Due to ongoing consolidation efforts, the number of BCCs decreased from 130 in mid-2021 to 113 by mid-2025. Regionally, these included 21 in Lombardy, 14 in Apulia, 12 each in Marche and Tuscany, 9 in Sicily, 8 in Veneto, 7 in Campania, with the remaining 30 distributed among other regions.