By a decision made on 11 May 2020 the Italian Competition Authority has opened a II-Phase investigation into the proposed acquisition of UBI Banca (UBI) by Intesa SanPaolo (ISP) affecting several banking and financial markets ( Case C-12287, Intesa SanPaolo/UBI Banca) . Alongside with Unicredit, ISP is one of the major banking players in Italy while the target UBI is a mid-size banking group. In February 2020 ISP launched a conditional public bid on the shares of UBI. On the same time ISP entered into a legally binding contract with another banking group, BPER, for the sale of about 400/500 branches of UBI. Because this contract shall be implemented within a reasonably short deadline, ISP does gains control of these assets. Notwithstanding that, while vetting the merger the ICA will also consider such branches because the precise scope of the divestment contract is uncertain. The ICA has concerns that the consummation of the merger might restrain competition in several ...