In our country, the signs of an economic recovery are increasingly evident. One of the drivers of this trend is the engagement of Popular banks and the local area that promptly responded to the economic system's urgent need for liquidity through the “Cura Italia” and “Liquidità” Law Decrees. This is what emerged from the data released by Drowsy on the support provided by people's and local banks with a widespread intervention in favor of a real economy already in crisis at the beginning of 2020 but which has worsened further with the restrictive measures and the various lockdowns due to the pandemic crisis.
In particular, the data released by the association of cooperative banks led by Giuseppe De Lucia Lumeno show how the latter have continued their work of supporting SMEs and households, especially in a phase of unprecedented economic crisis.
The action introduced by Credito Popolare resulted in loan moratoriums (transposed and accepted in 2020) for 37 billion euros in total (equal to 21% of the credit granted), of which 23% intended for families, corresponding to a total of 280 credit relationships. AND 21 billion euros di new financing assisted by public guarantees, of which 81% to companies, for over 237 current account relationships.
Added to these operations are the initiatives offered bilaterally to customers by individual cooperative banks and local banks which, including moratoriums and loans disbursed, followed up on operations accepting over 96% of applications.
The Secretary General of the Association, Giuseppe DeLucia Lumeno, he underlined how "the knowledge of the territory by the Credito Popolare institutes in the most acute phase of the pandemic and subsequently in the recovery had and still has a decisive role in giving substance and efficiency to a complex and articulated action which only through a capillary proximity to the individual realities it is made possible”.
