In the first three months of 2019, cooperative banks recorded growth in intermediated volumes. This was revealed by Assopopolari in the communications on the data updated as at 31 March in relation to the main balance sheet items.
Going into detail, performing loans, net of non-performing loans, recorded an increase of 1% against -0,7% for the entire system, while the accelerating reduction in the weight of problematic items on bank accounts continued. Furthermore, on the liabilities side there was a growth in funding of 1,5 per cent and, in particular, in deposits of 3,0 per cent.
Speaking of the flows disbursed, new loans to small and medium-sized enterprises exceeded the total figure of 6,4 billion euro, while those relating to new mortgage loans to households reached a value of 3,2 billion euro.
According to the general secretary of the National Association of Cooperative Banks, Giuseppe De Lucia Lumeno "These data reinforce the commitment of popular credit in the territories and communities of reference, highlighting how the objective of these strongly rooted credit institutions in the local area has among the priorities is that of combining profitability with the growth of entrepreneurial activity and the real economy, in order to guarantee sustainable and lasting development capable of strengthening the productive fabric and the bank itself. Even in the presence of an economic phase that still remains complex and uncertain – continued De Lucia Lumeno – the Cooperative Banks are proving to be even more an essential safeguard for the local economic realities by continuing to carry out that anti-cyclical function already widely tested in the most difficult years of the crisis."
