American Express Bank in Italy has raised roughly $800m in mutual fund assets and increased its third-party distribution network from 12 distributors to 80 since it started a dedicated Italian strategy last year.

The US bank has been selling its mutual fund range in Italy since 1995, but last May Amex took a strategic decision to increase its third party distribution network. Since then, the group went from $200m in assets under management to roughly $1bn due to increased marketing resources, a staff increase from four to 11 and publicity campaigns.