Banca Sella

Banca Sella was originally established as Gaudenzio Sella & C. on 23 August 1886 by Gaudenzio Sella, nephew of Quintino Sella (Minister of Finance of Italy from 1862 to 1873). The name was changed into Banca Sella in 1962.

The Bank pursued its growth, not only through the enlargement of its branch network, but also through acquisitions and the establishment of a banking group. Gruppo Banca Sella was therefore established in 1992. The Group philosophy and strategy is directly inspired by customer needs and aims to provide a wide range of products and services through its diversified distribution channels and companies of the Group and to constantly deliver high quality services. The Group Head Office is in Biella, a medium-sized city in the north-west of Italy, and covers through its branch network almost all Italian regions.

Since the ‘80s the Group devoted great attention and important resources to enhance its payment systems with advanced products and services, providing its customers with up-to-date electronic payment services, besides assuring worldwide cross border payments. As Principal Member (since 1996) of Visa International and Mastercard Banca Sella issues Classic, Business and Gold Visa credit cards as well as classic and co-branded Mastercard credit cards. Over the years new credit and debit functions were added to the cards including revolving and pre-paid facilities.

Since 1996 the Group devoted further attention to the development of new distribution channels and of innovative services such as phone banking, advanced internet banking, remote banking for corporate customers and e-commerce. The internet banking services offered by Banca Sella have been constantly enriched and the www.sella.it web site evolved from a simple window on the Bank into a real “financial portal”, which allows all the customers of the Group to access financial products and services directly through the internet. In February 2000 the new “Sella.it” brand was launched and it is constantly enriched to provide the services of an all-round virtual branch and to have 24-hour information access and transactions processing on their accounts, in synergy with the contact center and the network of branches.

Recent evolution - Digital solutions Banca Sella, through Sella.it, was among the first Italian banks to develop its products and services following the suggestions of customers and among the first to develop the potentialities of mobile banking in Italy aiming at simplifying the Customers' approach to banking services. Banca Sella was the first in Italy to develop an application both for iPhone (2008) and iPad (2010). In 2008, from an agreement between Banca Sella and Lottomatica, CartaLIS IMEL was established, the first electronic money institution in Italy to issue and manage payments instruments. In 2012 an innovative system for mobile payments enabling purchases by smartphone, was launched, which in February 2015 became Hype, a new way to manage money: the challenger bank allows to send and receive money in real time, to manage money in order to achieve savings or expenses budgets, to make online payments or POS payments. Hype is designed to use banking services through the simple interaction of an app. In 2020 Hype becomes an Electronic Money Institute (IMEL) and the challenger bank of the Sella group is allowed to directly open and manage the accounts of its customers.

Today, a relevant part of banking operations of Banca Sella is made through the digital channels and the platform of the Group dedicated to payments is widely used by the companies employing e-commerce solutions in Italy. Axerve, through the continuous development of innovative solutions linked to the acceptance of payments, establishes itself as the first hub of international payments in Italy. Since 2013 SellaLab selects ideas and offers customized assistance, mentorship, help in funding, co-working spaces and a network of partners to start-ups. SellaLab operates in collaboration with business incubators, entrepreneurs, investors, institutions and universities. In 2017, our Group launched the first Open Banking API Platform in Italy. The first Fintech District in Italy is launched in Milan: it is an access point to the Italian fintech ecosystem that brings together start-ups, entrepreneurs, financial institutions, investors and universities, to foster the development of the financial industry of the future and the growth of companies in the sector. In 2018 Fabrick is founded, an open financial ecosystem that enables and promotes collaboration between banks, corporates and fintechs in order to create innovative solutions for their end customers through the Fabrick Platform, a platform that aggregates, integrates and coordinates an ever-increasing number of APIs and services. Smartika, the private lending platform, becomes part of the Sella group. Since 2019 the technological infrastructure of the Sella group is merged into a new reality, Centrico, which in the logic of open banking provides unique core and digital banking solutions and a wide range of Information Technology and Business Process Outsourcing services to the companies of the Group itself and to banks, fintechs and other innovative financial operators. Moreover, Sella Venture Partners, alternative asset management company dedicated to venture capital investments, is launched and Nephis becomes part of the Group, expanding the offer with its specialization in salary-backed loans.

Core business and products The Group’s core products and services relevant to the main business lines of Commercial Banking, Private Banking, Payments Systems and Finance, , include: commercial banking, retail and corporate banking, asset management, dedicated private banking services, family office services, mutual funds and sicavs, securities brokerage and trading, corporate finance, insurance savings, leasing, trustee services, traditional payments, electronic payments, credit/debit cards, POS and ATM, e-commerce, internet banking, online trading, mobile banking, digital solutions, bancassurance / insurance mediation, consumer credit, life and non-life insurance.

HEAD OFFICE ADDRESS Piazza Gaudenzio Sella 1 – 13900 BIELLA Italy
PHONE +39 015 35011 – FAX +39 015 351767 WEB SITE www.sellainsights.it / www.sella.it / www.sellagroup.it SWIFT CODE BANCA SELLA HOLDING SELBIT22 (activities on the financial markets) BANCA SELLA SELBIT2B (commercial payments)