About Giuseppe Castagna
Giuseppe Castagna, Chief Executive Officer of Banco BPM, has commented on the bank's position regarding recent regulatory decisions and market consolidation. In April 2025, Castagna stated that the bank had been subject to "unexpected decisions" regarding the "mancato riconoscimento del compromesso animo," which he said impacted a reduction of one billion euros in distribution to shareholders. He declined to comment on the implications of these decisions for Unicredit, stating that Unicredit must determine how they affect its valuation of Banco BPM. Castagna noted that the bank would continue to pursue growth paths consistent with its strategic line, but would not consider operations solely for the sake of becoming larger.
Castagna has also addressed the bank's performance and market perception. He said that despite a strong track record of meeting or exceeding targets, the market requires time to fully value the bank's stock. He expressed confidence in the bank's potential following its industrial plan and the acquisition of Anima, and stated that the bank would wait for quarterly results to increase its value. In earlier appearances, Castagna discussed the bank's role in supporting the economy, the importance of digitalization and branch-based advisory services, and the need for a cohesive European approach to economic policy. He has also spoken about the bank's derisking plan and the sale of non-performing loans, describing the market for such assets as mature.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Giuseppe Castagna's recent appearances.
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Transcript (8 segments)
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Interviewer0:04
Doctor Castagna, at the UIL congress you presented the state of the art of your integration. But where are you and what are the next goals?
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Giuseppe Castagna0:12
But we are at a good point, we are actually going a bit beyond our plans. Today we are very focused, as we announced, on this derisking plan. We understood that beyond the agreements with BCI and what the market expected, it can really be the trigger to show that the bank has moved beyond past problems. So these days we are carrying out this operation on GAS of 5 billion. We are seeing if we can also accelerate the rest of the disposal of past liabilities. But above all, since this year we have completely reorganized the bank across the territories. We have divided private banking from investment banking. We truly have a bank that can offer all customers a first-class service, having the fortune of being in such an important territory. It is clear that the quality of service is what can really give us satisfaction in the future. Banks must respond to the change imposed by technology, European regulations, and supporting the real economy.
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Interviewer1:21
What kind of model do you have in mind for the future?
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Giuseppe Castagna1:23
But precisely, we have reorganized our bank to have regional directorates that can keep their finger on the pulse of the territory they follow and provide immediate responses, both from a credit point of view and from a point of view of conditions and understanding of all those companies that may have entered financial crisis in recent years but are now emerging. This monitoring on the territory is very important. We really wanted to give a signal of greater closeness to the customer with this reorganization, rather than looking to the past which responded more to the old structures of the bank. We are a bank that is obviously very concentrated especially in northern Italy, but we have, for example, created a very important directorate for the center-south, which is one of the largest among our eight, and which will be able to say something more in those territories than we have done so far.
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Interviewer2:17
Castagna, the renewal phase of the contract for bank workers is approaching. How do you see the future of work in banking, its evolution between physical branches on the territory, digitalization, and the skills of bank employees?
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Giuseppe Castagna2:32
But meanwhile, it is a moment of great understanding and where we have arrived. Certainly until a few weeks ago there was some enthusiasm due to the excellent results of the system in the first quarter. The truth is that we are coming out of a very heavy crisis which, beyond the contingent results, will still need many adjustments, consolidation, and in short, a lot of work on the efficiency of the system. This means giving immediate responses to customers, and here clearly digitalization will, must take its course, but also giving competent responses. And here is the meaning of continuing to have branches that are increasingly engaged in advisory activity at all levels, from the small saver to the companies that need to finance their development programs. Because evidently this is something that can hardly be replaced, but it is important to follow a project that is omnichannel, because precisely the customer must be able to decide which operations to do directly from home or office and for which they instead need specialized advice and therefore use our consultants.
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Interviewer3:52
Finally, Doctor Castagna, markets are back on alert on Italy, spreads rising, bank stocks falling. You have several investors, including international ones. How do you see what is happening?
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Giuseppe Castagna4:03
Yes, there is great emotionality, let's say, on the part of investors, because evidently the farther away you are, sometimes this escapes us. And we who are able to read perhaps more closely the events of the country, it escapes us how much from afar everything is flattened. So a political crisis that could lead to something new must immediately enable the country to give answers that are unequivocal and reassuring on some fundamental points. These days even abroad I hear comparisons between the current crisis and the premise because actually never as today compared to the last ten years has the country been doing well, and even the comparison with 2011, when not only was there a strong sovereign debt crisis but there was a country that was brought to its knees by five years of crisis and would have another five ahead. So in short, today we are in an objectively much better moment. However, we run the risk that from outside, from afar, they see us as a country still in crisis, and that is something we cannot afford. So the call is to really make the international community understand and realize the true intentions that this government knows and can put into action, clearly within the framework of a recognition of belonging to a currency that is the euro and Europe, which do not unnecessarily question the country's future programs.
