To support Italy's real economy, Mediocredito Italiano, which is the sole manager of EIB funds for Banca dei Territori, entered into agreements with the European Investment Bank for loans totalling 850 million euro. At the same time, Mediocredito Italiano committed to providing its own resources, for the same amount, to beneficiary companies, thus increasing the total amount available to support the Italian economic system to up to 1.7 billion euro:

  • 600 million is for financing mid-cap business projects in all sectors
  • 1 billion is for smaller-scale companies
  • 100 million is for the “Italian Risk sharing facility”, a joint initiative of the EIB, Italian Ministry for Economic Development (MISE) and Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) to support research, development and innovation projects of SMEs.

Mediocredito Italiano also offers “tailor-made” financial solutions for businesses investing in plants producing energy from renewable sources or in energy efficiency processes (see the section “Natural capital”, page 119).

The Group’s international banks are also very active in supporting local production with services and subsidised lending for small businesses and SME customers. Initiatives are often carried out in partnership with multilateral banks for regional development (e.g. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) and through local economic development programmes (e.g. The Ledib program for the development of the Balkans) or government funds aimed at ensuring the growth of small businesses and the development of high value-added activities.

Overall, new medium/long term loans for approximately 8 billion euro were disbursed for the real economy at an international level.