Banca Etica is part of a network of financial services and for cultural, environmental and human promotion.
Its purpose and intent have been collected in a manifesto that you can find here.
Yes, it is essentially a bank. Which gives credit to companies and organizations that are capable of producing social and environmental value.
It was born in 1999 from the initiative of a group of people who agreed with the opinion movement born in the 90s who claimed to no longer want to use banks involved in the arms trade or that invested in activities harmful to health and the planet.
In those years, non-profit organizations had many obstacles to overcome in order to receive credit, so a bank was created that offers transparency to account holders and willingness to give credit to non-profit entities.
The first branch was opened in Padua in 1999 and today Banca Etica has 17 branches in Italy.
In the words of President Ugo Biggeri:
«Banca Etica offers all the financial services needed by individuals, families, organizations and businesses. The immediate difference is that from the bank’s website you can view all the loans granted to legal entities: in Italy nobody does it. The other difference lies in the way in which we evaluate who to give credit: to the traditional economic evaluation of the sustainability and profitability of the loan, we combine a socio-environmental evaluation (for which we have adopted precise methodologies) through which we try to measure the impacts environmental and social aspects of the projects we are going to finance. Furthermore, some controversial sectors are excluded a priori, including fossil fuels, weapons, tobacco ».
Banca Etica also finances startups, such as Verde21 which designs and sells machines for the production and storage of thermal and electrical energy. Or The Sea Opportunities which provides underwater technologies and even Radiomotive currently incubated in Como-Next which deals with Internet Of Things and security.
In addition to this, Banca Etica’s commitment is also aimed at failed companies recovered by workers who form a cooperative and buy back the company, saving their jobs and productivity.
The latest initiative in which he strongly wanted to participate is in the contribution to the Superbonus as the reasons underlying the government rule are consistent with some of the inspiring principles of the Institute’s reality.
Banca Etica has made itself available to acquire the tax credit accrued for the expenses incurred for interventions such as energy and seismic requalification, as long as they comply with the requirements established by the law that established the Superbonus.
To learn more about the topic, you can consult all the resources published on the official website.
