Over 8 new customers and 2,5 billion euros in mortgages, leasing and factoring to support the growth projects of Italian small and medium-sized enterprises. These are the main results achieved in the first two and a half years of activity by the structure dedicated to companies with a turnover of up to five million euros led by the manager Gabriele Deco launched at the beginning of 2017 by Credem, one of the main Italian banking groups.
To date, 55 small business centers are active throughout Italy, alongside the branches and centers for larger companies, employing 500 people specialized in providing services to small businesses. In detail, since 2017 the Credem small business centers have reached around 8.400 new customers, supported the growth of corporate customers with over 900 million euros in mortgages, over 500 million euros in leasing and more than 1,1 billion euros in transactions of factoring. Strong focus was also dedicated to the digital evolution of companies and today 86% of the SME customers of the institute have access to the services of the virtual bank and 92% of the transactions take place on digital channels.
“Two and a half years after the christening of the new facility,” he said Gabriele Deco, Credem's small business sales manager, "our customers tell us that we have won the bet and recognize the value of the proximity and quality of the consultancy of our professionals in the area. In fact, according to a recent survey, 94% of customers are satisfied with our service model, a result that I consider to be extraordinary because it was obtained by a professional, attentive and demanding clientele, used to assessing the value of their suppliers every day. When we designed a structure dedicated to SMEs in 2017", continues Decò, "we set ourselves the goal of being at their side to support their investment choices, to design products and services to simplify business management, to protect them from business risks, to support the growth and evolution of their business in Italy and abroad”.
The service model offered by Credem to small and medium-sized enterprises is based on small business centers in which each company has its own dedicated professional. In order to continue offering an excellent service, significant investments were also made in staff training. In particular, since 2017 each manager has undergone more than eight hours of professional training to update their skills. Small business managers are also supported by specialists, key figures for dealing with complex operations on foreign trade, leasing, factoring, welfare for employees and shareholders, company protection and digital services, access to subsidized finance instruments.
In 2019, Credem's services to SMEs further expanded to include services deemed key by customers: long-term rental provided by Credemleasing, which enriches the mobility solutions for SMEs, electronic invoicing which is integrated into the internet banking service and thus allowing the company to manage both the invoicing and payment phases with a single tool.
"Our customers ask us to be close and listen to them in their growth and digital transformation projects", underlines Gabriele Decò, "for this reason we were the first in Italy to assist SMEs with subsidized loans combined with the guarantee issued by the European Investment Fund – FEI. In 2019, the tried and tested collaboration with the EIF also allowed us to activate specific support for the agricultural and agri-food sector for the improvement of the performance and global sustainability of the farm and of the processing and marketing of agricultural products. We are now working to make access to advice from our managers even easier, by adding video-call advice to email and telephone: this will allow entrepreneurs to minimize their travel and costs and have access to all the bank's professionals with a click".
The 500 Credem branches throughout Italy are operational for the normal cash and ATM services of all Credem customers and the managers will be dedicated to supporting micro-businesses and families.
