Group's preliminary consolidated results for 2020 approved

Profit for the year of € 245.7 million, supported by good revenue growth and effective control of operating costs, despite the complexity of the current situation caused by the health emergency and the acquisition of the going concern from the Intesa Sanpaolo Group.
Cash dividend of € 4 cents per share proposed, which confirms attention to shareholders and, at the same time, full compliance with the ECB’s guidelines.
The result has been affected by contributions to system funds of € 77.3 million 1 , net non-recurring items for a total of € 59.3 million 2 , costs of € 29.0 million relating to the project to acquire the going concern and positive taxes of € 67.0 million.
Cost of credit of 101 bps, including a precautionary estimate of the foreseeable impact on credit of the deterioration in the macroeconomic scenario as a result of the pandemic.
A further significant improvement in asset quality with gross and net NPE ratios of 7.8% and 4.0% respectively (from 8.8% and 4.7% in September and 11.1% and 5.8% at the end of 2019):

• a reduction in the stock of gross and net non-performing exposures to € 4.3 billion and € 2.1 billion respectively (-29.1% and -29.0% since the end of 2019) also thanks to disposals for a gross book value of € 1.6 billion;
• the coverage ratios of non-performing exposures are improving on a quarterly basis in all categories;
• the default rate of 1.0% is down compared with 1.7% in 2019;
• the Texas ratio 3 stands at 55.4%, down by 23.7 p.p. since the end of last year.

Net performing exposures are up by 0.9% since September and by 3.8% since the end of 2019, helped by the disbursement of loans guaranteed by the State for € 3.5 billion, mainly attributable to the retail and small business segments.
Total funding of € 185.2 billion is up by a further 4.5% since last September (+5.5% since the end of 2019) thanks to direct deposits, which rose by 5.6% (+8.8% since the end of 2019) and indirect deposits, back above the levels of the beginning of the year, with a strong increase of 4.1% on a quarterly basis. Bancassurance, which is included in the total funding figure, has continued to turn in excellent results reaching € 7.3 billion, an increase of 7.0% since the end of 2019. Total assets under management, including Bancassurance, exceed the € 50 billion threshold for the first time.
The Group's capitalisation is growing, even without the increase in capital for the acquisition of going concern from the Intesa Sanpaolo Group with a pro-forma Fully Loaded CET1 ratio 4 of 13.52%.
Including the effects of the increase in capital, the pro-forma Fully Loaded CET1 ratio 5 comes to 15.90% and the pro-forma Phased In CET1 ratio 6 to 17.70%.

The safeguards designed to protect the health of customers and employees and ensure the operational continuity of business processes were further strengthened. Over 50% of employees were able to work on a remote basis.
Significant results in terms of sustainability: CDP ("Carbon Disclosure Project") included BPER
Banca in the "A List", which acknowledges the commitment to fight climate change and the Standard
Ethics Agency raised the Bank's rating from EE- to EE. Furthermore, confirming the strong value of
its commitment to the environment, at the end of 2020 BPER Banca inaugurated at its Service Centre
one of the largest photovoltaic parks in Emilia Romagna, which immediately had a positive impact on
the reduction of emissions.