Unipol Group - The Bank of Italy did not give authorisation to acquire control over BNL

With reference to the authorisation request, pursuant to Article 19 of the Banking Consolidated Law, submitted by Unipol Assicurazioni and its holding Holmo S.p.A. on 4 August 2005 with the purpose to acquire control of Banca Nazionale del Lavoro S.p.A. and its banking and financial subsidiaries, we hereby inform that the Bank of Italy communicated today to the aforesaid companies that ‘the conditions laid down by the law to give the Unipol Group authorisation for acquiring control over BNL are not met’.