Credem, in line with the group's development and growth objectives, decisively continues its strategy of supporting the Italian economic fabric and in particular to companies that invest to grow and implement their business projects.
Specifically, they are 9 i billions of euros in funding which were allocated overall to small and medium-sized business customers and potential new customers during 2018 e available until the end of the year. The credit limit concerned a total catchment area of 100 thousand companies of which 30 are already customers and 70 are potential new customers. The targeted target is represented by small and medium-sized enterprises, artisans, farmers and freelancers, who have, among other things, the objective of managing liquidity needs, generally accentuated towards the end of the year, for the payment of thirteenth advances for taxes at the end of November, VAT advances, as well as other financial needs such as warehouse financing or advance payment of suppliers.
The total credit limit available was broken down by region, in relation to the economic fabric and the number of companies with the best prospects for debt sustainability: over 1,4 billion for Emilia Romagna, around 2,3 billion for Lombardy, 1,1, 600 billion to Veneto, 500 million to Tuscany, 570 million to Piedmont, 680 million to Campania, 420 million to Lazio, 360 million to Puglia, XNUMX million to Sicily.
At the end of September 2018, the Credem Group increased loans to customers by 2,6% y/y compared to the system which marks +1,55% in the same period, reaching 24 billion euro. The Group also maintained the quality of the assets at the top of the banking system with net non-performing loans on net loans at 1,05% (data at the end of September), a figure significantly lower than the system average of 2,32%.
The Group's results and the economic context prompted us to focus decisively on small and medium-sized enterprises”, he declared Gabriele Deco, small business sales manager of Credem,“increasing the ceiling in their favor which has risen to 9 billion euros. In 2017”, continued Decò, “we created a network dedicated to SMEs with 60 small business centers supported by an important team of professionals focused on developing new customers. During 2018 we also made investments in people, training and IT that will allow us to offer a service that is increasingly in line with the needs of SMEs", added Decò. "In addition to this initiative, we have renewed several agreements with the European Fund for Investments to more decisively support the projects of companies that have innovative ideas for growth and we have also activated, to broaden the scope of intervention, services also for employee welfare through a partnership with Eudaimon”, concluded Decò.
The Credem Group is present throughout the national territory with 661 branches, business centers and finance shops, 6.231 employees, 821 mandated financial consultants, 190 financial sub-agents and 95 financial agents specialized in salary-backed loans.
