Global law firm Dentons assisted CaixaBank in the opening of its first Italian branch in Milan.

Opening the Italian branch and obtaining the banking license strengthens CaixaBank’s position in the Italian market. The bank has been present in Italy for more than 20 years through a representative office that liaised between Italian companies and multinationals operating in the country and CaixaBank’s wholesale Corporate and Institutional Banking (CIB) team in Spain. The new banking license will enable CaixaBank to manage clients locally and directly offer a wide range of financial and banking services to large corporations and multinationals in Italy, including current accounts, deposits, short and long-term financing, working capital solutions, and foreign trade.

The transaction is part of CaixaBank’s international expansion strategy and represents a further step in the process of converting representative offices in Europe to bank-licensed branches, after having done so in the UK in 2016, Germany in 2017 and France in 2018. The bank now has seven operational branches (UK, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Poland and Morocco) and 17 representative offices worldwide.

Dentons advised CaixaBank on all legal, regulatory and tax aspects related to the opening of the branch with a multidisciplinary and multijurisdictional team involving Italy and Spain, led by Alessandro Engst (Rome/Milan) and Jesús Mardomingo (Madrid).

Partner Alessandro Engst, counsel Valerio Lemma (Rome) and associate Federico Atorino (Milan) looked after the general coordination of the transaction, as well as all the regulatory aspects concerning the launch of the branch’s operations, including assistance in the passporting procedure with the Supervisory Authorities and in the preparation of the branch’s internal procedures and documentation related to the products offered in Italy.

Partner Barbara Urselli and associate Francesco Crimi (both Rome) handled the corporate law profiles, while partner Fabrizio Capponi, senior associate Leonardo Grassi and trainee Cristina Rabuazzo (all Rome), were involved for tax. Partner Davide Boffi and associates Francesca Servadei and Eugenia Fornaciari (all Milan) assisted with regard to labor law issues; while partner Giangiacomo Olivi and associate Antonio Venditti (both Milan) advised on privacy and technology matters. Partner Matteo Vizzardi and associate Matteo Danieli (both Milan) advised on the compliance and Italian Legislative Decree 231/01 matters.

Partner Jesús Mardomingo and associate Lola Noguera (both Madrid) also assisted in the Spanish law aspects of the transaction.

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