The European Commission has cleared under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed acquisition of two subsidiaries of the Italian Intesa Sanpaolo banking group by an US-based corporation.
After examining the operation, the Commission concluded that the transaction would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area (EEA) or any substantial part of it.
Intesa Sanpaolo Servizi Transazionali and Sanpaolo Bank are subsidiaries of the Italian Intesa Sanpaolo banking group. They are active, respectively in Italy and Luxembourg, in global custody services, fund administration services and selected ancillary services such as securities lending, foreign exchange, transition and collateral management and investment analytics.
The US-based State Street Corporation is globally active in the field of financial services, and in particular in the provision of domestic and global securities services to support institutional and individual investors in developing and executing their global investment strategies.
The Commission concluded that the proposed transaction would result in an overlap in the parties’ activities in the markets for global custody and fund administration. However, in the market for global custody the parties’ combined market share remains limited, and in the market for fund administration the increment in the parties’ market share is minimal while a number of significant competitors are active on this market. The Commission therefore concluded that the proposed transaction would not raise competition concerns.
The transaction was notified to the Commission on 19 March 2010.
