Credito Valtellinese: Combined Ordinary and Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders adopts 2003 balance sheet

Net profits: +21.7%
Dividend of € 0.40 per share. Average dividend yield of 4.68%.

Direct deposits: + 11.5%
Investments: +9.9%

General Meeting also resolves on changes to be made in Articles of Association

Sondrio, April 17, 2004 - The Annual General Meeting of the Shareholders of Credito Valtellinese Scarl, parent bank of the Credito Valtellinese banking Group, has adopted, with only one (1) abstention, the Group 2003 consolidated results, as well as the balance sheet of the parent bank as of December 31, 2003. The year ended December 31, 2003 recorded strong increases in all business areas.

Credito Valtellinese 2003 Balance Sheet

Net profits for the year ended December 31, 2003 stood at € 32.1 million, posting an increase of 21.7 percent over the previous year. The Annual General Meeting has resolved on the following distribution of profit: € 9.4 million to reserved surplus, € 800,000 to a provision for charity, a dividend of 0.40 euros per share, the same amount as last year but referring to a greater number of shares (54,577,884 compared with 51,418,213 shares making up the capital base of Credito Valtellinese as at December 31, 2002); the dividend yield is 4.68%. The share will be quoted ex-coupon as from April 26, 2004, while the dividend will be paid with effect from April 29, 2004.

Details of the balance sheet as of December 31, 2003 are as follows: direct deposits at 3,401.2 million euros, compared with € 3,051.2 million at the end of the previous year (+11.5%)
Indirect deposits increased from € 3,299.1 million to € 3,601.4 million, posting a growth of 9.2 percent over the previous year.

Credits to the customers amounted in all to 2,955.4 million euros (+9.9%).

Below are details of the profit and loss account of Credito Valtellinese as at December 31, 2003.
The interest margin was up 3.9 percent, to 87.9 million euros.

Proceeds from services recorded an increase of 5 percent, attaining 43.9 million euros.
The operating margin amounted to 168.6 million euros (+ 8.9%).

Administrative expenses amounted in all to 91.3 million euros, with an increase of 8.9 percent mainly due to an increase in the number of branches.

The gross operating income rose by 9.8 percent to € 70.1 million.

Taking into account provisions and value adjustments for € 12.2 million (substantially unchanged over the previous year), ordinary profits amounted to 57.8 million euros (+ 15.8).

The amount of extraordinary profits was € 1.6 million.

Consolidated results of the Credito Valtellinese Group

The Annual General Meeting of the Shareholders has also resolved on the adoption of the consolidated Balance Sheet as at December 31, 2003.

Below is an outline of consolidated operating results as of December 31, 2003:

During the year, the Group has been committed to improving the range of services for its clientele by adopting a multi-channel strategy, which combines the traditional channel used to reach customers (i.e. branch network) with the new channels and new products made available by the Internet.

At the end of 2003, the number of branches was increased up to 308, while the number of banc@perta users, i.e. customers being able to access online banking services offered by the Creval Group, is now over 150,000

Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders

The Extraordinary Meeting of the shareholders of Credito Valtellinese has approved by a large majority (only two votes against) a series of changes in the Articles of Association of the company, which will allow greater flexibility to the regulations of the company, in accordance with the principles of the new Corporate Law.

Management of Credito Valtellinese

The shareholders at the Annual General Meeting appointed the following new members to the Board of Directors of the company: Mr Salvatore Vitali, Mr Angelo Palma, Mr Franco Moro, Mr Maurizio Quadrio, Mr Alberto Ribolla and Mr Marco Santi. All of them are qualified as 'independent directors', under the requirements of the Code of self-regulation of listed companies.

The shareholders also appointed the new members to the Board of Statutory Auditors for the period 2004-2006, which is composed of Mr Roberto Campidori, Chairman; Mr Angelo Garavaglia and Mr Alfonso Rapella, Acting Auditors; Mr Aldo Cottica and Mr Fabiano Garbellini, Alternate Auditors.

Mr Salvatore Vitali has been reappointed deputy Chairman of the Parent Bank.