BANCA LOMBARDA GROUP PROFILE

The Banca Lombarda Group (BLG) is one of the leading banking groups in Italy. Banca Lombarda is the publicly listed parent company of the Banca Lombarda Group. The organisational structure is based on a "federal model", where the parent company Banca Lombarda provides the group with common staff functions such as strategic planning, risk management, IT, finance and funding, while commercial banks and other product companies operate with a degree of independence, maintaining their original brands.

BLG is a multi-regional banking group that offers a wide range of services and products to its customers (grouped into retail, corporate and private customers), including commercial banking, asset management, bancassurance, leasing, factoring and consumer credit.

The Group's growth and geographic expansion in recent years has been significant. The BLG is a result of the merger of C.A.B. S.p.A. with Banca San Paolo di Brescia S.p.A, occurred in 1998, and subsequent expansion and consolidation of a structure that, today, includes six banks in Italy (Banco di Brescia; Banca Regionale Europea; Banca di Valle Camonica; Banco di San Giorgio; Banca Cassa di Risparmio di Tortona; Banca Lombarda Private Investment) and one in Luxembourg (Banca Lombarda International).

Furthermore BLG includes five asset management companies (Capitalgest SGR; Grifogest SGR; Capitalgest Alternative Investments SGR; Solofid and Sifru Gestioni Fiduciarie Sim), a leasing company (SBS Leasing), two factoring companies (CBI Factor and Veneta Factoring) and a consumer credit company (Silf).

The Group has nearly 1.3 million customers, primarily comprised of individuals and small and medium-sized companies, and conducts its operations through almost 780 branches and a network of nearly 700 financial consultants. The Group has 7,535 employees.

The BLG increased its total assets from December 31, 1998 to December 31, 2003 from euro 17 billion to euro 31.5 billion.

As at 31 December 2003, BLG had outstanding customer loans of euro 23.6 billion, funds administered of euro 62.9 billion (including direct deposits of euro 22.4 billion) and assets under management of euro 22.4 billion.

August 2004

Contact names

CORRESPONDENT BANKING

PRODUCT, SERVICES & MARKETING