In 1931 the ‘Istituto di Credito’ took over the deposits of the ‘Banca Agricola Italiana’ and so extended its activities beyond Turin into Piedmont and Liguria; in 1932 it was officially recognised as a credit institution regulated by public law and took the new name ‘Istituto di San Paolo di Torino’.
At the beginning of the 20th century, when the industrialisation of Turin was just beginning to get under way, the ‘San Paolo’, in addition to lending to the City and Provincial authorities in order to finance the development of infrastructure and the muncipalisation of essential services, also supported, in 1907, the establishment of the ‘Istituto delle case popolari’ (the organisation in charge of building popular housing in the city) and intervened directly in the provision of technical training for skilled workers. It also played an important role in the construction of the new building for the ‘Ospedale Maggiore alle Molinette’, finished in 1935.
At the end of 1991, as part of the changes introduced with the “Amato-Carli” law, the bank became a public limited company, denominated the ‘Istituto Bancario San Paolo di Torino S.p.A.’ while its activities aimed at social benefit were placed under what was called, in tribute to the institution’s past history, the Compagnia di San Paolo. Today the Compagnia is a private law foundation, regulated by its own Statute which was adopted in 2000.
