AGCM

PRESS RELEASE

INTESA SANPAOLO: ANTITRUST AUTHORITY REVIEWS MEASURES ON LIFE INSURANCE

Obligation to sell Sud Polo Vita revoked but the regulations on governance for Generali representatives and on the distribution of the Intesa Sanpaolo network have been reinforced.  Intesa Sanpaolo can only sell its own insurance products on its network.  Confirmed the collective market dominance with Generali for Life Insurance I branch both in production at a national level and distribution at a provincial level

During the meeting of 22 December 2010, the Autorità Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato took the decision to review measures on the life insurance branch of the insurance sector programmed in December 2006 when Banca Intesa merged with Sanpaolo. During the investigation, which was started on 30 September last year, Antitrust Authority again analysed the Life insurance sector market involved in the operation, even in the light of the group restructuring project in the insurance sector and on the basis of which Intesa Sanpaolo would operate through exclusively controlled insurance companies and through a distribution network made up of bank windows and promoters, always from the Intesa Sanpaolo group network.
The analysis has reconfirmed the collective market dominance held jointly by Intesa Sanpaolo and Generali in the Life Insurance I branch of the insurance sector and the existence of competition problems in the whole division, caused by corporate and personal bonds between Intesa Sanpaolo and Generali.  In the face of this criticality, Intesa Sanpaolo has presented new commitments, made binding by the Authority Authority, that held them as being suitable for facing the competition restrictions that still exist in important markets.
In particular:
the obligation to sell the c.d. Sud Polo Vita, being the company branch made up of an organised group of activities and structures aimed at producing and managing Life insurance policies I, III and V branch to independent third parties has been revoked;
it has been established that the group can only sell its own insurance products on its network following a vertical integration organisation model, which anticipates sales through the Intesa Sanpaolo Group national distribution network, representatives included, of Life Insurance Policies I, III and V branch and companies controlled by Intesa Sanpaolo exclusively. The possible decision to change the distribution model must be evaluated by the Antitrust Authority. The previous prohibition of distributing Life Insurance Policies I, III and V branch produced by Intesa Vita and/or Generali through bank branches controlled by the ex San Paolo windows, and policies of the same branches of Eurizon through bank windows controlled by the Banca Intesa Group in 2006, becomes null as a result;
governance measures, aimed at “neutralising” the role of Generali, originally prescribed for managing Eurizon, are extended to the whole life insurance sector and all those in the Surveillance, or Management Committees, or any internal committee, that have personal, direct or indirect ties with the Generali group.  In particular, Intesa Sanpaolo must use the necessary organisation instruments to exclude these subjects from information flows, participation in discussions and exercising the right to vote in the governance organs of Intesa Sanpaolo on all matters regarding the life insurance sector. The application of detailed regulations aimed at preventing Generali representative conflicts, based on information monitoring, signalling, and withholding before and after various governance entity meetings, is foreseen.

Rome, 22 December 2010