Relations with national, European and international institutions and advocacy actions

During 2020, inititatives to develop relations with international institutions and bodies, in the interest of the Group and its stakeholders were promoted with the broader aim of supporting growth and stability of the national system as a whole. In this context, advocacy activities on regulatory issues of international relevance were implemented, together with the monitoring of the main economic and geopolitical events and the concrete support to the internationalisation process of small, medium and large enterprises.

The monitoring of international geopolitics was carried out during 2020 through meetings and conferences organized and held with the main international think-tanks with whom the Group cooperates: Chatham House, The Royal Institute of International Affairs, Istituto per gli Studi di Politica Internazionale, Istituto Affari Internazionali, Centre for European Policy Studies, The Brookings Institutions, Peterson Institute of International Economics and the Fondazione Internazionale OASIS. At the same time, the monitoring of international geopolitics was also implemented through constant contacts with the Representatives of foreign countries of interest to the Group. Particular attention in this area was dedicated to the evolution of financial restrictive measures ("trade sanctions"), whose timely update is necessary for the Group to proactively plan responsible international activities and presence.Within the scope of the most important international initiatives which benefited from the participation and support of Intesa Sanpaolo, worthy of note were:

1)   The participation in the Finance and Infrastructure Taskforce of The Business 20 (B20)

Italy chairs the sixteenth G20 Summit. Intesa Sanpaolo is taking part, through the International Public Affairs unit, in the Finance and Infrastructure Taskforce of The Business 20 (B20), the official G20 dialogue forum with the global business community.  

The B20 composes of an average of over 1,000 delegates from the G20 countries and accounts around 2,000 participants representing an overall business community of over 6.5 million businesses. Intesa Sanpaolo is part of such forum since 2015. The B20 delivers concrete actionable policy recommendations on priorities established by each rotation presidency to spur economic growth and development.

The financial services industry has an integral role in achieving broad sustainable development goals, among which for example carbon neutrality, as trillions of dollars will need to be intermediated through banks, capital markets, insurance companies, private equity and other capital providers to finance this historic transition. The Finance and Infrastructure Taskforce of the B20 is focused on promoting efforts to scale up sustainable finance and financial inclusion by supporting the development of impact investing, accelerating the adoption of global ESG standards and by fostering access by individuals and micro businesses to affordable financial products and services.

2) The participation in the Taskforce for Nature Related Financial Disclosure

Intesa Sanpaolo is part of the Observer Group of the Taskforce for Nature Related Financial Disclosure (TNFD), an initiative launched and coordinated by Global Canopy, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

The TNFD is being catalysed through an Informal Working Group comprising 74 financial institutions, regulators, corporates, and will provide a framework for corporates and financial institutions to assess, manage and report on their dependencies and impacts on nature, aiding in the appraisal of nature-related risk and the redirection of global financial flows away from nature-negative outcomes and towards nature-positive outcomes.

3) the support to MED Mediterranean Dialogues – Beyond Turmoil, a Positive Agenda

MED – Mediterranean Dialogues is the annual high-level initiative promoted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and ISPI (Italian Institute for International Political Studies) in Rome with the aim to rethink traditional approaches to the area complementing analyses of current challenges with new ideas and suggestions and to draft a new “positive agenda”, addressing shared challenges at both the regional and the international level. With more than 40 virtual events, Rome MED 2020 represented a unique virtual space where ministers, heads of state and experts from all around the world discussed the challenges and imperatives posed by COVID-19 in the Mediterranean region, in economic, socio-political, and environmental terms. The discussion was intended to define a “positive agenda”, to find common solutions to crucial themes such as migration, international security, women and youth, sustainability, and clean energy. In such an unprecedented scenario, the four Rome MED pillars – Shared Prosperity, Shared Security, Migration, and Civil Society and Culture – were analyzed and reconsidered through the lens of a society profoundly hit by the pandemic, but deeply committed to build back better than it was before.