Mediobanca celebrates 80 years since its foundation
Mediobanca was established on 10 April 1946. Eighty years of history, that are also eighty years of innovation: consumer credit introduced to the country for the first time, investment funds and their regulation, private equity at a time when it did not exist in Italy.
Mediobanca is celebrating the eightieth anniversary of its foundation. The memorandum of incorporation for the Bank set up by Raffaele Mattioli and Enrico Cuccia in the aftermath of World War II to manage a crucial phase in the country’s history was signed on 10 April 1946. The Bank was devised in order to fill a structural void in the Italian credit system, at a time when the financial market was not in a position to respond adequately to the country’s need for industrial growth.
From the outset, Mediobanca’s nature was to act as a “systemic” bank, tasked with gathering wealth and transforming it into credit for the benefit of real economy. Through the years this nature has found expression in a series of initiatives that have left their mark on the development of Italian finance. Mediobanca has repeatedly positioned itself at the cutting edge of developments in the capital markets and of innovation in the world of financial instruments, contributing to the adoption of practices and instruments that are fundamental to companies and households to this day.
Examples of innovations that are attributable to Mediobanca’s capability include:
- The launch of tied savings and certificates of deposit solutions to provide credit in the medium term, solutions into which Italians poured their savings following the end of World War II;
- The spread of a financial and economic culture based on values of transparency, proper conduct and sound management, through the operations of Progredi, a company that provided advice on valuing financial risks;
- The introduction of consumer credit to Italy, based on the lessons that Enrico Cuccia learned from his visits to other countries, resulting in the first personal loans being granted;
- The launch of experimental investment funds, forerunners of the more common instruments distributed by banks today to manage customers’ wealth, contributing to their regulation and subsequent adaptation to the Italian market;
- Completely new private equity and venture capital projects, plus the adoption of instruments, such as prospectuses, which are still fundamental for ensuring transparency versus investors and for promoting financial culture.
In its activity, first of all as an investment bank, Mediobanca built a reputation founded on analytical rigour, confidentiality, competence and the ability to read financial statements thoroughly: qualities that have accompanied the Bank in all the various stages of its development. Renewing its business model, including through expansion on non-Italian markets, the Bank has consolidated competences and specializations that have strengthened its role in supporting the Italian economic system. From advisory services to asset management, right up to the most recent developments in the areas of Wealth Management and investments in Private Markets, the Bank has approached changes in the economic scenario with a business model that combines strategic continuity with innovation.
On the occasion of its anniversary, Mediobanca is launching a series of initiatives to accompany it in this year of celebrations. One of these is an advertising campaign devised to highlight the Bank’s heritage, reflecting a wealth of capabilities which “continue to develop in order to serve companies and households”. “For eighty years now we’ve been building tomorrow. Every day”, the claim goes, with a logo to mark the anniversary, which will identify all the initiatives to be launched in the coming twelve months.
A dedicated area of the Bank's website at www.mediobanca.com has also been set up, bringing together analysis and testimonies from the Bank’s history, allowing users to rediscover the contribution that Mediobanca has made to the country’s financial history, including through access to sources held by the “Vincenzo Maranghi” Historical Archive.
Milan, 10 April 2026