“Cattolica is the only insurance cooperative in Italy, and the only insurance cooperative to have adopted the one-tier system. And so, it is one of a kind on a national scale”, explained Paolo Bedoni, Chairman of Cattolica Assicurazioni. He spoke during the seminar “The Law of Corporate Controls Looking at the One-Tier Model” held at Milan’s Bocconi University.

Organised by Assonime in collaboration with the Milan university’s Angelo Sraffa Department of Legal Studies, the conference presented the experiences of Italian stock exchange companies and academia's point of view on the opportunities of the one-tier model to rationalise the corporate control system.

“Before arriving at the successful decision to transition from the traditional to the one-tier system”, recounted Bedoni, “we had to undertake a long journey, which required a great assumption of responsibility. The General Meeting last April approved a new governance model, which marked a turning point because it combined the cooperative spirit with opening up to the market. A wonderful challenge for a cooperative brave enough to bring itself up to date. The one-tier system guarantees more slimline governance, removing the Board of Statutory Auditors and giving more power to the BOD, which has been reduced from 23 to 17 members and will be renewed at the same time every three years in order to give greater stability to Company policy.”

Case studies from UBI Banca, Intesa Sanpaolo and Leonardo Finmeccanica were also presented at the round table, coordinated by Professor Mario Cera.