Banca Generali (BGN.MI) Tuesday said it has further expanded its open architecture offer of funds by signing commercial agreements with five international partners including BlackRock (BLK), Credit Agricole AM (ACA.FR), Morgan Stanley (MS), Invesco (IVZ) and Vontobel (VONN.EB).

Open architecture lets asset managers offer investment products created by other companies. "Asset management needs to be tailored to clients' requests," Banca Generali Chief Executive Giorgio Girelli said at a press conference to launch several new products.

"Banca Generali was one of the first Italian companies to introduce open architecture offer in 2003," Girelli said.

With about EUR20 billion of asset under management Banca Generali is among Italy's largest asset management companies.

In May Banca Generali was one of the few asset management companies in Italy to post net inflows of EUR35 million, EUR313 million since the beginning of the year.

Shares of Banca Generali have outperformed the FTSE Mib index since the beginning of the year. At 1412 GMT shares were up 3.5% at EUR6.02.

Company Web site: www.bancagenerali.com

-By Sabrina Cohen, Dow Jones Newswires, +39 02 5821 9906; sabrina.cohen@dowjones.com