Its original duty was to finance public works like roads and waterworks during the reign of Victor Emmanuel II of Italy, King of Sardinia-Piedmont.

[3] CDP is the major Italian institution for economic development through long-term investments at local, regional and national level and acts as the government's arm for executing public policy mandates.

Its main purpose was to mobilise capital received by the State through private savings collection channels for public utility works.

[9] After the unification of Italy, in 1863 it began to incorporate similar banks in the other states that gradually merged into the kingdom and followed, with its own headquarters, the relocation of the Italian capital, first to Florence and then to Rome.

The bank gradually expanded its operations, offering new savings instruments, the proceeds of which were used for the CDP's institutional objectives, such as the construction of the Rome-Naples direct railway.

[13] On 1 January 2006, the operational structure changed again with the incorporation by Cassa Depositi e Prestiti of the Infrastrutture S.p.A. company, which had been established by CDP in 2002 for the purpose of financing, in various forms, the construction of infrastructure and large public works.

[15] In late 2009, as credit conditions tightened after the global financial crisis, CDP started lending to small and medium enterprises through banks.