Valore D and iDEE

With the aim of promoting a culture of diversity and inclusion, the Group joined the Valore D association in 2021, which promotes gender balance and a more inclusive culture for the growth of companies and the country based on the principle that valuing diversity of gender, but also of different generations and cultures, is a factor for innovation, competitiveness and therefore growth.

We joined Valore D in order to complement our membership in iDEE - Association of Cooperative Credit Women, established in 2004 to promote and leverage the presence, prominence and contribution of women within the system, favouring equal opportunities.

BCC Banca Iccrea has also adopted the Charter “Women in banking: valuing gender diversity” promoted by ABI in 2019. The Charter constitutes a tool available to companies to support their commitment to equal opportunities, in line with the provisions of current law.

Forum for sustainable finance

Since 2019, BCC Banca Iccrea has been a member of the Forum for Sustainable Finance, a non-profit association founded in 2001 whose mission is to promote the knowledge and practice of sustainable investment, with the aim of spreading the integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria in financial products and processes.

The Forum's activities are divided into three main areas – Research, Projects and Relations with Institutions – and since 2012 has organised SRI Week, one of the main events in Italy dedicated to sustainable and responsible investment.

• 11 novembre 2020 - "PMI italiane e Sostenibilità"

ASviS

Since 2019 BCC Banca Iccrea has been a member of ASviS

The mission of the Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development (ASviS) is to raise awareness in Italian society, economic actors and institutions of the importance of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It networks those who are already dealing with specific aspects included in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in order to: i) foster the development of a culture of sustainability at all levels, orienting production and consumption models to this end; ii) analyse the implications and opportunities for Italy linked to the Agenda for Sustainable Development; iii) contribute to the definition of an Italian strategy for the achievement of the SDGs (including using analytical and forecasting tools that help define policies for sustainable development) and to the creation of a system for monitoring Italy's progress towards the SDGs.

European Microfinance Network

BCC Banca Iccrea is a member of the European Microfinance Network (EMN), a Brussels-based non-profit organisation that promotes microfinance as a tool to fight social and financial exclusion in Europe through self-employment and the creation of micro-enterprises.

Giovanni Dalle Fabbriche Foundation - Multifor ETS

The Group belongs to the Giovanni Dalle Fabbriche Foundation, which was established on 13 October 2021 through the merger of the Multifor Foundation of Forlì into the Giovanni Dalle Fabbriche Foundation of Faenza. The new organisation continues to pursue the objectives of the original foundations: to facilitate and support young people’s entry into the working world; to contribute to the development of the local economic fabric, with particular regard to the world of cooperation; to promote civic, charitable and socially useful initiatives. The main tools used by the Foundation are scholarships and research, Erasmus Plus and internships in local companies in agreement with universities.

Foundation for Financial and Savings Education

The Foundation for Financial and Savings Education (FEduF), set up on the initiative of the Italian Banking Association (ABI), is a non-profit under private law that pursues socially useful purposes by promoting Financial Education, in the broader concept of Education for Conscious and Active Economic Citizenship, in order to develop and disseminate financial and economic knowledge. The Foundation promotes financial education and economic citizenship by creating original content, innovative tools, organising events and developing partnerships with institutions and the local area.

For more information on the collaboration with FEduF, see the relevant section under Sustainable Finance

The BCC Iccrea Group participates in several national and international working tables, where the issues of sustainable finance, sustainable development and related regulations are discussed and addressed from multiple perspectives. This makes it possible to maintain an effective supervision and continuous exchange with other banking counterparts and different geographical realities on topics of common interest.

Federcasse and Confcooperative

Federcasse – Federazione Nazionale delle Banche di Credito Cooperativo e Casse Rurali – is the trade association of BCCs. It carries out most of the activities for the latter that the ABI offers to the Italian banking system.

The Italian Cooperative Confederation is the main legally recognised organisation representing, assisting and protecting the cooperative movement and social enterprises.

Tertio Millennio International Foundation - ETS

The Group participates in the Fondazione Internazionale “Tertio Millennio” – ETS, a non-profit organisation established in 2000 by a group of founding members linked to the world of cooperative entrepreneurship and Catholic associations.

Promoted in the area of mutual credit cooperation, in October 2020 the Foundation was transformed from a non-profit organisation to an ETS (Third-Sector Entity) under the “Third Sector” reform.

Totally non-profit, the Foundation aims exclusively to develop social solidarity initiatives in Italy and abroad, especially within the system of Cooperative Credit Banks and Rural Banks, focusing practical attention on the principles and values that guide its action.

UNICO Banking Forum

Some of Europe's leading cooperative banking groups have joined together in the UNICO Banking Forum, an “informal” forum for exchange and discussion between banks having similar histories and values on numerous topics of common interest. Fanno parte di UNICO il Gruppo BCC Iccrea, Banco Cooperativo Español (Spagna), Crédit Agricole S.A. (Francia), DZ Bank AG (Germania), OP Financial Group (Finlandia), Raiffeisen Bank International (Austria). La nostra Capogruppo, BCC Banca Iccrea, ha assunto la presidenza del Forum per il biennio 2021-22. Find out more.

Sustainability is one of the most frequent topics on meeting agendas. A community dedicated to Sustainable Finance started in 2021, and the minister Enrico Giovannini, economist, statistician and academic, co-founder and spokesperson of the Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development (ASviS), was the guest speaker at the first virtual meeting of the UNICO CEO Circle (a periodic meeting of the CEOs of member banks) in January 2021, chaired by BCC Banca Iccrea General Manager Mauro Pastore.

This was followed by a second meeting in November 2021, during which the European banks belonging to the Forum addressed key topics related to the main post-pandemic challenges (Next Generation EU, Ecological Transition, ECB Guidance on Climate Risks, Stress Tests), sharing expertise and experiences in the management of cooperative banking structures. The meeting was also attended by Mario Calderini, professor at the School of Management of Milan Polytechnic and one of the leading experts in Italy on impact finance and social innovation. Find out more.

The third meeting was held on 22 November 2022 and saw the CEOs discuss the current geopolitical landscape and the main strategies implemented by European cooperative banking groups to face the challenges of the environment. The discussion began with a keynote speech by Professor Giuseppe Lusignani, Professor of Banking and Finance at the University of Bologna and Vice President of Prometeia.

The last meeting under the Iccrea presidency was held in January 2023, in Vienna, at the invitation of the CEO of Raiffeisen Bank International (Austria). There, General Manager Pastore passed the baton to the Director of Banco Cooperativo Español, concluding the experience of BCC Banca Iccrea as Lead Bank of the UNICO Banking Forum. Find out more.

Obiettivo del Piano di Sostenibilità

Microcredito e Lotta all’usura

Framework agreement with the National Microcredit Authority

In June 2020, the BCC Iccrea Group signed a first memorandum of understanding with the National Microcredit Authority (ENM), in order to:

• Promote and incentivise the use of entrepreneurial microcredit at individual BCCs.
• Facilitate and stimulate direct collaborations between the Authority, microcredit tutors and individual BCCs for the provision of mandatory ancillary services.
• Monitor the status of the collaboration through the analysis of periodic data.

The memorandum of understanding was followed by the signing of a full-fledged operational framework agreement in February 2021. By signing this Agreement, the BCC Iccrea Group confirmed its commitment to pursuing the responsible and sustainable growth of the areas where its member BCCs operate, promoting an instrument that is characterised not only as a measure to combat poverty, but also as a credit strategy to support entrepreneurial projects that would otherwise be marginalised from any market production logic because they are too small or because they are proposed by non-bankable subjects.

The BCC Iccrea Group's commitment to entrepreneurial microcredit

The Group has a strong positioning in microcredit.

• In fact, in 2019 one out of every four entrepreneurial microcredit transactions in Italy (guaranteed by the special section of the Guarantee Fund for SMEs) was executed by the BCCs belonging to the Group.
• In 2020, despite the pandemic and the numerous emergency measures put in place by the government, the Group maintained a significant market share of 20%. From the launch of the "Microcredit section" of the SME Guarantee Fund (May 2015) to the end of 2020, 39 BCCs of the Group have stipulated at least one microcredit transaction with a guarantee from the SME Guarantee Fund.
• Again in 2021, as the emergency produced by the SARS COV2 pandemic persisted, the BCCs continued to ensure a good supervision of the sector. 37 BCCs still have ongoing microcredit operations for a total of 2,347 transactions and more than €56 million disbursed; 315 new business microcredit transactions were finalised in 2021.
• 33 BCCs already have a bilateral agreement with the National Microcredit Authority.

It should also be noted that many of the Group's BCCs are members and partners of microcredit operators active in Italy, i.e. non-banking intermediaries specialised in microcredit, who people and projects potentially eligible for a microcredit transaction are referred to.

With the goal of supporting BCCs not interested in lending directly but still committed to the development of financial inclusion initiatives, in 2021 the Group signed a national agreement with Permicro, the top Italian operator specialised in microcredit. The agreement aims to complement the direct offer of the affiliated banks by offering the possibility to sign bilateral reporting agreements for their customers. 11 BCCs have already signed this agreement.

Actions to integrate the supply system in this specific sector were further developed in 2022, when the Group signed a similar Memorandum of Understanding with Fidipersona, a microcredit operator active in the Marche region. Signed on behalf of the 13 BCCs affiliated with the GBCI operating in the region, as in the case of Permicro, the MoU joins other actions to develop and promote financial inclusion, which has become one of the key points of the Group's multi-year Sustainability Plan.

Framework agreement with the John Paul II ONLUS National Council of Italian Anti-Usury Foundations and Associations

BCC Iccrea Group has signed a framework agreement with the John Paul II National Anti-Usury Council to strengthen the commitment of the Group's BCCs to promoting financial inclusion, historically integrated in the social purpose of credit cooperation, and today included as a specific objective in the BCC Iccrea Group Sustainability Plan.

The framework agreement will also make it possible to coordinate the activities of the various BCCs that already have agreements with local Foundations in the area for their own and institutional initiatives promoted and requested by the local Prefectures.

The signing of the framework agreement makes it possible to:

• Centrally coordinate the supervision of a financial sector particularly akin to the constituent values of BCCs (and as such emphasised in both the Sustainability Plan and the Consolidated Non-Financial Statement - CNFS).
• Progressively expand the number of BCCs working with conviction on the issue.
• Extend the degree of financial awareness of BCC customers, with the aim of preventing the emergence of usury issues.

To learn more read the press release​​

The BCC Iccrea Group has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Caritas Italiana (https://www.caritas.it), the pastoral body of the Italian Episcopal Conference (Cei) for the promotion of charity, which aims to promote "the witness of charity of the Italian ecclesiastic community, in forms appropriate to the times and needs, with a view to integral human development, social justice and peace, with particular attention to the most vulnerable and with a prevailing teaching function" (Article 1 of the By-laws).

Il Protocollo d’Intesa si pone molteplici obiettivi, quali:

• Encourage the emergence of new initiatives at the local level on topics of significant common interest.
• Promote the many initiatives both at the national and local levels, developed over the years by the individual BCCs in collaboration with the local Caritas dioceses.
• Set up a permanent round table with Caritas Italiana, a long-time partner of Credito Cooperativo.
• Identify opportunities to intensify the relationship between individual BCCs and individual Caritas dioceses, and between the BCCs and Caritas Italiana.
  
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