The commitment of large Italian companies to make a contribution to the fight against the coronavirus does not stop. In particular, the initiatives of the first two banks in the country continued, Intesa Sanpaolo and Unicredit. After announcing a donation of 100 million euros to the Civil Protection, the bank led by Carlo Messina among the many projects he also added support for medical research on Covid-19, allocating 1 million from its own charity fund, which in 2020 will count on resources for 14 million euros. 16% of the total will therefore be invested in scientific research: recognized Italian universities and research institutions can apply for projects according to the standard procedures access to Fund resources.
The projects will be identified through a selection process conducted by a commission of experts with defined and transparent criteria and followed at every stage. "In such a difficult moment for Italy - commented the president of Intesa Gian Maria Gros Pietro -, we are allocating one million euros to research on Covid-19, a measure that adds up to donations to the national health system, to economic support to individuals and businesses, to fundraising initiatives for worthy projects. Scientific research has always been a field of action of the Charity Fund and today we want to be even more incisive to encourage the learning of knowledge that will allow us to get out of the emergency quickly and in a lasting way".
The unicredit, particularly active in supporting small and medium-sized enterprises, it has launched a new initiative in collaboration with SACE SIMEST, the export and internationalization pole of the CDP group. A ceiling of 1 billion euros has been set aside for the offer immediate support to Italian SMEs and Mids affected by the Covid-19 emergency, specifically in relation to export and internationalization activities. The resources will allow companies to overcome the difficulties associated with temporary delays in the collection flows of existing orders and orders and to deal with limitations in deliveries to customers or suppliers, thus guaranteeing continuity in their operations with international markets .
In particular, loans will also be disbursed (by Unicredit, with the guarantee of SACE) with short-term maturities, maximum 18 months, to companies that are already customers of the bank in Piazza Gae Aulenti. As for SACE, the partnership with Unicredit it is part of a larger €7 billion package of measures, recently launched by the entire CDP group, to support the operations of Italian companies more widely.
Mediobanca and its employees have donated 1,1 million euros in favor of the fight against Covid-19. The amount, which will be donated to the Lombardy Region, the Municipality of Milan and the Sacco Hospital, was raised thanks to the joint efforts of the Bank and its employees who have actively participated in an internal fundraising campaign in recent days.
“We have always been close to the area in which we operate and its institutions. With this donation we want to give concrete support to the initiatives to deal with the ongoing health emergency - said Alberto Nagel, Chief Executive Officer of Mediobanca - I would like to thank the institutions for their commitment in recent days also on behalf of all Group employees who have generously contributed to this initiative – concludes Nagel”.
