MILAN: Italy's biggest bank Intesa Sanpaolo said on Monday it had signed a memorandum of understanding with BNP Paribas Cardif to buy non-life insurer Cargeas for 390 million euros ($469 million).

Cargeas had an accord to distribute its products through UBI Banca, Italy's fifth-largest bank which was taken over last year by Intesa.

Cargeas, which sells insurance products in the motor, property, health and credit sectors, has around 600,000 customers in Italy and had premiums of 226 million euros last year.

The final accord is expected to be signed by the end of the month while the closing of the deal is due in the first half.

With a business model built around in-house fee-generating businesses, Intesa reaps 61% of its gross income from wealth management and protection activities.

In reporting 2020 earnings on Friday, Intesa said revenues in the Protection and Casualty segment, where it wants to expand, totalled 370 million euros, up 55% from a year earlier. Income from the insurance business stood at 1.34 billion euros.