What can we learn from the UniCredit experience? First, it is remarkable that the most suc- cessful Italian bank has developed almost exclusively from public banks, with the exception of Credito Romagnolo. Therefore, it cannot be considered as an example of a successful merger across different pillars. Second, the geographical spread of UniCredit's activities within Italy is noteworthy. Apart from Credito Italiano, which also operated in some South- ern regions, all banks merged into UniCredit operated in the wealthy north of Italy. Third, UniCredit cannot be considered representative of the Italian banking system, which on av- erage performs much worse than UniCredit. Hence, the particular success of.
