In 2019, the 86 banking foundations of Acre reached a accounting assets equal to 40,3 billion euro, an increase of 39,6 million (+1,6%) compared to the previous year. There was also strong growth (+140,1%) in total income, which reached 2,601 billion, and the surplus for the year, which went from 575 million in 2019 to 1,909 billion in 2019 (+232%).
These are the main data contained in the twenty-fifth Annual report approved by the ACRI council.
THE NUMBERS OF ACRE
The 40,3 billion in book assets represent 86% of the balance sheet liabilities. As for the assets instead, equal to 47 billion (+1,3%), 95,1% comes from financial assets while the remaining 4,8% from movable and immovable assets.
From an economic point of view, the strong increase in income – equal to +140,4% – contributes, in addition to the good performance of the markets, also to the management of financial instruments (+325%), asset management (+106%) and dividends (+32%). The latter, in particular, amount to 1,455 billion euros, a figure that represents 59% of total proceeds. “The increase . – specifies Acri – is exclusively due to dividends other than those of the transferee, which, substantially stable compared to the previous year, amount to 647 million euros and represent just under 25% of total income”.
Moving forward with the numbers, the report also testifies to a strong increase in tax burdens, which in 2019 rose to 510 million euros from 323 in 2018.
“In terms of the management results of the foundations of banking origin – he said Francesco Profumo, president of Acri – 2019 recorded extremely positive results. The recovery of the financial markets, compared to a particularly difficult 2018, led to a significant increase in total income, which was reflected in the operating surplus, which more than tripled compared to the previous year".
THE DISTRIBUTIONS
"Despite the strong increase in the 2019 financial year surplus - reports Acri - a decrease in disbursements has been recorded, since these are now mainly made on the basis of the previous year's surplus".
In figures, in 2018 disbursements amounted to 1,025 billion euros, in 2019 they fell by 11,1% to 911 million, a figure which corresponds to a disbursement rate of 2,3% on the average assets of all the Foundations.
A total of 19.378 initiatives were financed (-3,5%). 240,6 million euros were allocated to the Art, Activities and Cultural Heritage sector (equal to 26,4% of the sums disbursed), resources useful for financing 7.143 interventions (corresponding to 36,9% of the total number). This is followed by “Volunteering, Philanthropy and Charity”, with 131,7 million euros and 2.194 initiatives; “Research and Development”, with 130,4 million euros and 1.169 interventions; “Social assistance”, with 91,6 million euros and 1.915 interventions (10,1% of the total amounts and 9,9% of the number of interventions).
"The Fund for the fight against child educational poverty deserves a separate consideration, which in terms of resources allocated accounts for 9% of the total number of resolutions", reads the report. In the first four years of activity, the Fund awarded grants for around 281 million euros to support 355 projects. Finally, welfare received a total of 253,2 million euros, plus 82 million euros sent by 67 Foundations associated with Acri to the Fund for the fight against child educational poverty. The overall share for welfare thus reaches 335,2 million: almost 37% of total disbursements.
President Profumo assured that, on the disbursement front, "the Foundations confirm their commitment alongside the communities and the third sector, in the field of welfare and beyond, with the aim of combating inequalities, starting from educational poverty juvenile. This commitment of theirs was further confirmed in the first half of 2020, when the Foundations put in place an extraordinary effort to respond to the pandemic and support the recovery of the country".
OPERATING STRUCTURE
In 2019, the Foundations employed 1.014 people, with a total cost of 69,6 million euros. 91% of the resources are made up of staff. With regard to the presence of gender, female personnel amount to 59% of total employees, while with reference to the level of schooling, 70% of employees are university graduates, 26% have a secondary school diploma, 4 % a lower secondary school diploma.
