EU Clears State Street Acquisition Of Intesa Securities Services Business

European regulatory agency has cleared US financial services firm State Street's acquisition of the securities services business of Italian banking group Intesa Sanpaolo.

In December 2009, State Street had signed an acquisition agreement with Intesa Sanpaolo, to acquire its securities services business (ISPSS), with operations in Italy and Luxembourg, for approximately EUR1.28bn in cash at closing.

State Street would acquire the global custody, depository banking, correspondent banking (banca corrispondente), and fund administration portions of the ISPSS business.

In the first half of 2009, ISPSS had approximately EUR343bn of average assets under custody, and approximately EUR141bn of average assets under depository bank services. ISPSS’ Luxembourg business accounted for approximately 20% of ISPSS’ 2008 revenues.

Upon closing, State Street would assume approximately 555 new employees, with approximately 420 in Italy and 135 in Luxembourg.

State Street first established its investment servicing presence in Milan in 2003 with the acquisition of Deutsche Bank’s global securities services business.