The Italian banking group Intesa Sanpaolo announced on Friday that it has established a bank that will, starting from November 5, be the first in Europe to provide services exclusively to social enterprises and the nonprofit sector.
Intesa Sanpaolo already serves more than 50,000 nonprofit organizations across Italy, and Banca Prossima will be specifically tailored to the operations and characteristics of the secular and religious nonprofit sector. Banca Prossima will offer a full range of specific products and services designed in collaboration with organizations from the third sector, aimed at social enterprises and church bodies.
The new bank will operate through 6,200 branches of the Intesa Sanpaolo group, will utilize 60 offices in Italy for more complex transactions, and will also rely on a network of 100 experts throughout Italy, selected from Intesa Sanpaolo employees. Intesa Sanpaolo has allocated 120 million euros to the new bank, and all profits from Banca Prossima will be used for its further development. Part of the funds is intended to maintain capital value to ensure the complete sustainability of the venture; the remainder will be directed to the Fund for the Development of Social Enterprises.
The nonprofit sectors in Italy and the United Kingdom are the largest in Europe. In Italy, there are 250,000 nonprofit organizations with a total of four million volunteers and paid employees. Their total revenues amount to 46 billion euros, characterized by a steady growth of 10 percent over the last five years. The nonprofit sector also leads in dynamism, due to a large number of young employees (65 percent under 40 years old), mostly women (60 percent), and a high percentage of individuals with secondary and higher education (70 percent).
