MedioCredito Centrale (MCC), part of Capitalia which was once Banca di Roma, is proud of its one-page, 10-commandment charter of values – something that sets it apart from its Italian competitors. Goldman Sachs is the model; client satisfaction is the bank’s main aim; teamwork its culture.
MCC was originally a Treasury-owned, medium and long-term credit institution, involved in businesses such as subsidised loans to industry and export credits. It became part of the Banca di Roma group on privatisation. It was bureaucratic, dull and hardly the stuff of investment banks.
Then, almost two years ago, Matteo Arpe arrived with ideas to create something dynamic and more like the two institutions for which he had previously worked – Lehman Brothers and Mediobanca for more than a decade before that.
Will Mr Arpe succeed in building an investment bank in Rome to challenge competition in Milan? He does not see MCC going head-to-head with the likes of Goldman. Italian competition is a different matter, although by being in the Eternal City, MCC carries a handicap in that it is removed from the country’s financial centre.