Italy plays a key role in the success of the Next Generation EU programme

Intesa Sanpaolo provides the strength of the Bank to accelerate the restart of the economy and businesses.

“By 2026, Intesa Sanpaolo has earmarked €152 billion for households, communities and social inclusion. Resources for digitalisation, innovation, competitiveness and culture come to €109 billion. Followed by €76 billion for green initiatives, circular economy and ecological transition, €58 billion for infrastructure, transport and urban regeneration, €19 billion for health, pharmaceuticals, education and research. In particular, the funds we are providing and that we will provide for businesses stand at €270 billion.”

In addition, Intesa Sanpaolo’s focus is on four lines of action:

Impact finance for structural change

• “Innovative projects, and in discontinuity with the past, range from urban regeneration to school and hospital refurbishment and social inclusion.”
• “In the last year, at international level, private funds for investments in infrastructure have raised $100 billion, while the figure was just $34 billion in the previous decade. This means that there are great opportunities for Italy as well.”

Youth

• “The pandemic has exacerbated the plight of our young people who must be considered high on the political agenda along with measures to encourage population growth.”
• “Intesa Sanpaolo finances deserving university students with no guarantees, low rates and long credit repayment times.”
• “Intesa Sanpaolo, thanks to the extraordinary collaboration with the trade unions, has defined the largest project for hiring young people. Over the next few years it will allow 3,500 to join the Group.”

Women

• “Female employment should be encouraged and supported, it can make a vital contribution to recovery.”
• “In order to have gender equality, we need to move from declarations of intent to actions by creating appropriate conditions: crèches, maternity aid, long-term and even grant funding.”
• “In Intesa Sanpaolo, we have articulated programmes to support training and entrepreneurial development for women, encouraging recruitment, promotions to positions of responsibility, and appointments to management positions.”

Interventions for Southern Italy

• “If Southern Italy were an EU state, it would be in eighth place in the ranking of the 27 European countries for the presence of manufacturing companies, with an important role in value chains on an even European scale.”
• “Much more can be done, also because of the opportunities linked to the new geopolitical centrality of Southern Italy in the Mediterranean.”
• “40% of Italian port traffic comes from the ports of southern Italy.”
• “There are many start-ups in Southern Italy and in the last three years, Intesa Sanpaolo has financed around a thousand of them.”
• “In Southern Italy, Intesa Sanpaolo has a market share of 24% in business loans and 32% in real estate loans.” 

We need “strategic vision and plans”. The “precise and binding” commitments we have with Europe “will guarantee a formidable acceleration of the projects, because the distribution of funds is based on the verification of the progress of the works”.

Support for the Recovery Plan

• “Next Generation EU, the European funding tool for recovery, is a special opportunity to be seized.”
• “We must be aware that economic development is the only way to make the ratio of public debt to gross domestic product sustainable.”
• “We are in a unique phase: plenty of liquidity, available for change. It is now or never.” [card]
• “In Italy we have extraordinary levers to activate: the resources parked in the current accounts of businesses and households that, if transformed at least partially into investment and consumption, can be added to European funding, multiplying its impact.”
• “Entrepreneurs and families need to regain confidence, which is a prerequisite for getting the new initiatives going again.”

The banking system

• “The Italian banking system today does not have much to envy to those of other European countries. The process of concentration has gone very far, NPLs are under control, derivatives are much lower than those in the belly of large European banks.”
• “For Italy I hope for further concentrations to arrive at the creation of at least three poles.”
• “Intesa Sanpaolo was the first to move in the direction of banking concentrations, desired by the European Central Bank, successfully closing the purchase of Ubi Banca.”

The Draghi government

• “The presence of Mario Draghi at the Presidency of the Council and Sergio Mattarella at the Presidency of the Republic is an ideal conjuncture to set the reforms that can really change Italy, allowing the sustainability of public debt.”
• “The Government could evaluate extending Sace’s guarantees for long-term loans to businesses and their extension. Bringing the maturity of the covers to 20 years would allow businesses in difficulty to have adequate time to reorganise and restart.”
  

The challenges posed by the pandemic represent a unique opportunity for Europe to play a leading role on equal standing with powers such as the United States and China.

• “European funding and economic recovery plans represent a unique opportunity for Europe: to remain the third block at the top of international geopolitics together with the United States and China. If this does not happen, the European Union will be destined to play an increasingly marginal role.”
• “It is important to realise that there are no alternatives: what is at stake is to regain the momentum to be a pole of global dimensions that can stand up to the United States and China. If not, national logics will prevail, but not even the strongest countries, such as Germany and France, will be able to remain competitive.”
• “Italy will play a decisive role: we represent a key junction in determining the actual success of the Next Generation EU programme.”