Economy support

Constant attention is dedicated to the world of Small and Medium Enterprises which are the engine of our economy. To facilitate access to credit, the Bank developed an innovative rating model - validated by the ECB - in collaboration also with Confindustria Piccola Industria. In addition to the usual economic and financial assessments, the new model aims to make it easier to access credit, at more favourable financial terms, by basing the assessment also on the intangible qualities of the business, such as trademarks, patents, quality and environmental certifications, research and development activities, innovation and digitisation, development and competitive positioning projects, management of the business risk and being part of a supply chain. 

The growth of Italian SMEs is also supported by the Extraordinary Finance structures and the partnership with Elite of Borsa Italiana, through innovative financial solutions that give companies high visibility to institutional investors and enhance their reputation and financial culture. In partnership with Confindustria, in 2022 Intesa Sanpaolo took 53 companies representing all of Italy and its economic sectors to three Elite Lounges (an international programme to accompany the most ambitious companies in their development phases), in hybrid, physical and digital version.

The post-pandemic situation has been strongly impacted by the international geopolitical crisis which, as already mentioned, has had serious repercussions on the country’s economy, in particular as a result of the increase in the price of commodities and the cost of energy. In view of this, new cooperation agreements were signed with leading industry associations with the shared goal of supporting businesses in tackling the high energy costs: these include the agreements with Confapi, Anita Confindustria, Finco and Ucimu.

By signing new agreements with the main trade associations (Coldiretti, Confindustria Alberghi, Federalberghi, Federterme, Faita Federcamping Confcommercio, Confesercenti, Confartigianato) the aim has been to provide support for the immediate needs of businesses by providing tools with a view to making a recovery that increases the competitiveness of Italian companies on global markets.

The relational Industrial Dialogue approach supports the new way of making Bank: It enables business managers to assist entrepreneurs in their growth and development pathways, thanks to a better understanding of the peculiarities of their companies and the sector in which they operate and the possibility of providing answers and solutions adapted to their objectives. It has the aim of increasing the "strength of the relationship" of managers with companies, identifying a common language for a better understanding of their needs, oriented to offer solutions better suited to the objectives and peculiarities of each company.

In 2022, the scope of the ESG information on the platform that can be collected in interviews with customers, strategic for assessing a company’s ESG profile, was expanded.

Considering that many small and medium enterprises are part of complex supply chain networks, often with strong relationships at local level, since 2015, another project called “Programma Sviluppo Filiere” was launched to support the growth of manufacturers of excellence by creating an innovative model of collaboration between the Bank and the Lead Company.

An offer is being developed to support the sustainable evolution of the supply chains, with the engagement of the chain leader and the suppliers to improve their sustainability profile. At the end of December 2022, there were around 830 participating lead companies with potentially over 19,600 suppliers and a workforce of over 112,000 employees.

Attention to small and medium-sized enterprises also translates into analysis activities that the Studies and Research Department carries out through in-depth studies on local economies and production chains with the aim of identifying customer needs and strengthening the offer model of the Bank, favoring access to credit, the various forms of productive aggregation and the enhancement of companies with a recognized strategic role within the supply chains.

The Welfare Hub service offers corporate welfare programmes through a digital multimedia and multi-channel platform - that can be browsed via PCs, tablets and smartphones and is accessible also via App - which allows the company to offer its employees a set of goods and services called Flexible Benefits, instead of company bonuses in their payslips, that enjoy tax benefits both for the company that offers them and for the employee who receives them. 

The Welfare Hub was proposed as a sustainability tool by the “Sviluppo Filiere” programme and by the S-Loan project and, at the end of 2022, it had 5,220 companies that had signed up to the platform.

Business Gemma funding supports women's and self-employed women's companies, benefiting free of charge from the special section of the SME Fund for Women's Entrepreneurship. In 2022, 100 loans were provided for 3.6 million euro.

In order to create business development and acceleration opportunities for the most promising technological start-ups, Intesa Sanpaolo developed several initiatives, such as the Nova+ financing programme, the Intesa Sanpaolo Start Up Initiative and the Tech Marketplace digital platform, that enables startups, SMEs and big companies to match their technology needs and offers, with the aim of creating partnerships, commercial agreements and acquisitions.

As part of the financial support to companies interested in improving their digital profile,  the D-Loan offer has been developed, which provides for the granting of loans with subsidised rates for companies that promise to commit to a list of selected “digital” KPIs. Around 21 million euro was disbursed in 2022.

The year 2022 saw the completion of the initiatives that Intesa Sanpaolo had implemented from 2020 onwards to deal with the economic and social emergency deriving from the spread of COVID-19. These initiatives were supported by Intesa Sanpaolo also through the Impact Loans, which are innovative and sustainable, long-term financing tools that are qualified as a form of patient capital with very modest costs.

In 2022, the Bergamo Renaissance Programme, in collaboration with the Municipality of Bergamo and the Fondazione CESVI (Bergamo), and the Florence Renaissance Programme, in collaboration with the Fondazione CR Firenze (Florence), were completed, intended for start-ups, micro-enterprises and SMEs for the realization of development and innovation projects with impacts on the territory. As regards the Bergamo Renaissance Programme, in 2022 a total of about 400,000 euro was disbursed. With regard to the Florence Renaissance Programme, the amount disbursed in 2022 was about 2.9 million euro.