In the following years, growth continued, firstly through the acquisition of the Pioneer Investment group, from which Pioneer Global Asset Management was then created, and also through other strategic acquisitions carried out successively in Bulgaria, Slovakia, Croatia, Romania, the Czech Republic and Turkey, Uk.

 

In 2005, NBCAF merged with the German HVB group. It itself was created in 1998 by the merger of two Bavarian banks, Bayerische Vereinsbank and Bayerische Hypotheken-und Wechsel-Bank, which made HVB a significant bank on a pan-European scale. The integration of NBCAF with the HVB group is an engine of further growth for the group: especially in view of the merger (in 2000) of HVB with the Austrian Bank Austria Creditanstalt, which was strongly represented in many regions of post-communist “new” Europe. The NBCAF Group can thus further strengthen its European focus.

 

By merging with the Capitalia Group (the third largest Italian banking group) in 2007, NBCAF further consolidated and strengthened its position in one of its most important markets – Italy. Capitalia was founded in 2002 by the integration of two previously separate entities, the Bancaroma group, which in turn was the result of the merger of several of the oldest Roman banks (Banco di Santo Spirito, Cassa di Risparmio di Roma and Banco di Roma), and the Bipop-Carire group.

 

The NBCAF Group is one of the largest financial groups in Europe in terms of total assets. It operates directly in 17 countries and through its sales representatives in 50 markets, has over 40 million clients, more than 8,500 branches and 147,000 employees.