Banca Popolare di Puglia and Basilicata and the SACE group announced on 6 February the finalization of an important agreement of collaboration for support in an increasingly effective way the internationalization needs of the SME customers of the credit institution. In fact, with the agreement, BPPB's client companies will be able access the insurance-financial services developed by the SACE group at advantageous conditions: insurance of sales against the risk of non-payment, protection of foreign investments against political risks, guarantees for tenders and orders, credit recovery services, assistance and training on internationalization and advances on receivables due from both public and private counterparties, thanks to a wide range of factoring services, which are particularly in demand today to regulate cash flows. In the current situation, companies that have been able to look ahead have managed to react and grow. To embark on an internationalization process that today seems no longer to be postponed, this agreement offers an important additional opportunity for local SMEs, which can find in SACE a single point of reference for identifying the best insurance-financial solutions made available for the growth of Made in Italy.
The BPPB has 137 branches, about 1.200 employees, about 270.000 customers, over 30.000 members distributed throughout the country, with a strong presence in Puglia and Basilicata, always guided by a sense of social responsibility, to create an economic value that is based on a constant relationship with businesses and households. In finalizing this agreement, the agency network of SACE BT, the group company specializing in short-term credit insurance, sureties and construction risk protection, played a key role.
At the same time, Confindustria Emilia-Romagna and SACE signed three days after a agreement of collaboration intended for strengthen the international competitiveness and exports of companies in the region to markets with the greatest potential for demand for Emilia-Romagna products. The agreement, in line with the economic policy objectives which aim to bring the incidence of exports on GDP to 50%, lays the foundations for a path of accompaniment of Emilia-Romagna companies towards greater internationalization, through meetings, seminars , consultancy aimed at supporting strategies for penetrating new markets, initiatives dedicated to the most representative sectors of the regional entrepreneurial fabric in the context of EXPO 2015, and to some interesting markets for Emilia-Romagna exports (in particularIndonesia) promoted by the Confindustria Emilia-Romagna system in the two-year period 2015-2016.
The agreement with SACE reinforces the commitment promoted by the Confindustria regional system in collaboration with the Emilia-Romagna Region to support companies on foreign markets. It is in fact the first region in Italy for per capita exports, the second (together with Veneto and after Lombardy), for absolute value, the third for productive investments abroad. There are over 26 exporting companies and they have grown by 20% in the last two years. The logic of the agreement then becomes that of making exports of companies grow through increasingly flexible and innovative tools: with the partnership with Confindustria Emilia-Romagna, SACE intends to offer companies the tools necessary to fully evaluate the coherence of the commercial approach to the single markets and the different risk profiles and to choose those effective financial-insurance structures.
Thanks to the agreement, the companies associated with Confindustria will be able to advantageously access the offer of services developed by the SACE group to respond to the various needs to compete inside and outside Italy: access to financing for internationalization, even additional to the banking system (Export Development Fund); sales insurance against the risk of non-payment; protection of foreign investments from political risks; advance of credits claimed with Italian or foreign counterparties; credit recovery and advisory services.
