Banks: Crédit Agricole is probably planning concessions for Banco-BPM merger

Paris/Rome. According to insiders, the French bank Crédit Agricole wants to address the Italian government's possible concerns about the merger of its Italian subsidiary with Banco BPM with advance commitments.

Crédit Agricole had signaled to the government in Rome that Italian savers' funds would be managed by Italian hands even after the merger, one of the insiders told the Reuters news agency on Tuesday.

The government is particularly concerned with Anima, the asset manager of Banco BPM, which manages a significant amount of Italian government bonds.

Credit Agricole is in turn the controlling shareholder of Amundi, Europe's largest fund manager.

Crédit Agricole proposed on Monday to merge its Italian subsidiary with the northern Italian regional bank Banco BPM and thus increase its stake in the institution based in Milan and Verona from almost 30 to 45 percent.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government has the right to intervene in mergers and acquisitions that it considers strategically important.

Italian savers have invested a large part of their money in domestic government bonds.

The government in Rome fears that foreign fund managers could redeploy the funds.

The merger between the asset management division of the Italian insurance giant Generali and the French BPCE failed last year due to similar concerns.

The support from the domestic banking sector secured the refinancing of the Italian state during the 2011/12 euro crisis.

France is currently in the focus of investors because of its high national debt.