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With the project “No one excluded. Growing Together in a Fairer Country,” the banking group has committed to $1.5 billion over the next 4 years and created an organizational unit dedicated entirely to social issues
The Intesa San Paolo Group, with 100,000 employees, is the leading employer in Italy. Thanks to the activities of the shareholder foundations Cariplo and Compagnia di San Paolo, the banking group is also “the first foundation in Italy,” as explained by Managing Director and CEO Carlo Messina, taking on financial commitments for extraordinary social work: $1.5 billion between 2024 and 2027, as well as a department with leadership and management functions for social activities, which will be called “Intesa San Paolo for Social” and will be based in Brescia.
On October 26, the presentation meeting of the initiative “No one excluded. Growing Together in a Fairer Country” took place in Brescia, also involving various participants in the Group’s social activities such as Caritas, Dynamo Camp, and the Forum for Inequality and Diversity, during which Messina announced the largest anti-poverty program never before created by private organizations in Italy.
“The data we continually collect is a sign of our focus on the country’s life and confirms that a large segment of the Italian population is excluded from enjoying the level of individual well-being typical of a developed economy,” explained Carlo Messina, board member and CEO of Banca Intesa. “By announcing €1.5 billion for social issues by 2027, we are making another strong commitment to shareholders, customers, and society as a whole to confront this situation. It is important for us to go beyond statements of principle and implement our values into daily and credible commitments that are the result of a clear strategy, company policies, actions, and habits that take into account the needs of territories and communities. This is why we are creating a new organizational unit, “Intesa Sanpaolo per il Sociale,” dedicated exclusively to this activity, with headquarters in Brescia, which I will oversee personally.
I believe that other actors in the economic and business world will be able to develop measures of a similar nature, because a fair and cohesive society guarantees better stability for the country to face the challenges of the future, including the serious ones to which it is called.”
The speeches of the beneficiary associations emphasized that Intesa Sanpaolo is not limited to allocating funds, but is taking an active role in solidarity planning, which is likely to be even greater with the new Brescia organizational unit.
This day also provided an opportunity to outline the phenomenon of inequality and, through various measures from associations, institutions, and entrepreneurs, possible measures to reduce inequality and youth unemployment, solve demographic problems, and understand what the third sector can contribute to the growth of the country.
Messina also announced the decision of Intesa Sanpaolo to support the people, “the true creators of the Bank’s results”: “The increase in the advance payment will be paid by the end of the year in order to intervene quickly, given the economic situation, and we will also continue to restore the full basis for the calculation of severance pay, believing that negotiations on the employment contract will be completed quickly and satisfactorily for all parties.”
You can listen to extensive excerpts from the conference in Giampaolo Cerri’s podcast in the volunteer newspaper Vita.
