INTESA SANPAOLO: GROWING TOGETHER WITH ENTERPRISES

Torino, Milano, 3 July 2009 – The Intesa Sanpaolo Group confirms its commitment to grow together with enterprises and launches tailor-made initiatives - including the agreement with Confindustria to assist SME liquidity and capitalisation - which will be illustrated this morning by CEO Corrado Passera in a meeting in Milano with entrepreneurs.

The Group’s lending to the Italian System amounts to nearly 500 billion euro in the form of facilities granted, equivalent to approximately one third of the country’s Gross Domestic Product, of which some 67% to enterprises, above all small and medium-sized (50% of the total facilities granted to the Italian System).

The Intesa Sanpaolo Group has succeeded in not reducing its lending to Italian enterprises even during the last 12 months, despite the sharp fall in loan demand and the significant rise in credit risk. The amount of on-balance sheet loans to small and medium-sized enterprises remained stable at 152 billion euro while substantial medium-long term credit disbursements to support investments totalled some 18 billion euro for the period.

The Group confirms that lending will be available to small and medium-sized Italian enterprises over the next 36 months for:
- some 60 billion euro as current unused margin of facilities already granted;
- some 30 billion euro as new facilities to be granted on request;
The Group expects new medium and long term credit disbursements of some 50-60 billion euro over the same period (the figure for the last 6 months was some 8 billion euro).

Enterprises’ access to credit will be facilitated by the following further commitments on the part of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group aimed at:
- constant renewal of the offering also for specific sectors;
- proximity typical of a local bank, thanks to the validity of the Banca dei Territori model;
- “bridging” with all the other entities that can facilitate credit access (Confidi, Fondo Centrale di Garanzia, SACE, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, BEI);
- capital investment and not only lending to enterprises;
- increasing transparency and simplification of contractual conditions. In this framework, provisions set out in the recent “anti-crisis” Law Decree will not significantly impact on the Group’s future profitability.

Enterprise access to the Intesa Sanpaolo Group credit will however remain based on creditworthiness.

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