In 2020, diversification and prompt action to respond to the pandemic. Disbursements grow, despite the crisis.

Publication date: 22 September 2021
Institutional

The Board of ACRI has approved the twenty-sixth Annual Report, which presents aggregate data from the 2020 financial statements of foundations of banking origin.

These are the main data contained in the Report and relating to the 2020 financial statements of the 86 Italian foundations of banking origin:

  • total book value of equity: 39.7 billion euros, down by approximately 553 million euros (-1.4%) on the previous year;
  • income: 1,421.4 million euros compared with 2,600.7 million in 2019 (-45.3%), a significant drop due to the effects of the pandemic crisis and the freezing of bank dividends recommended by the ECB;
  • dividends from non-bank equity investments: 900 million euros, accounting for 63.3% of total investments;
  • gross return on equity: 3.6%, compared with 6.5% in 2019;
  • operating surplus: 1,050.3 million euros (-45%);
  • disbursements: 949.9 million euros (+4.3%);
  • disbursements for welfare: 396.5 million euros (41.7% of the total).

 

The Annual Report on the Foundations, produced by ACRI, also contains two external contributions: “Asset allocation of foundations of banking origin”, produced by  MondoInstitutional, and “The impact of the pandemic on inequalities”, produced by IRS – Istituto per la Ricerca Sociale, which examines the role played by foundations of banking origin and by third sector organisations in the COVID-19 crisis.

The Chair of ACRI and Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo Francesco Profumo commented: “The Twenty-sixth Annual Report of Foundations of Banking Origin records the impact that the first year of the pandemic had on the Foundations system and the extraordinary response they have been able to put in place to respond to the emergency. First of all, the prudent management and diversification process, constantly pursued over the years by the Foundations, has ensured that, despite the crisis in the financial markets and the freezing of dividend distribution urged by the ECB, disbursements were not only unaffected but actually grew. The Foundations stepped up to the plate just when they were most needed, continued Profumo. Furthermore, the decline in profitability recorded by the Foundations in 2020 was decidedly lower than that of other institutional investors in the same period. It is worth considering, moreover, that the dividends not received during 2020 further strengthened the banking institutions and therefore, in the long term, consolidated the value of the investment. Foundations of banking origin, which are about to celebrate thirty years of activity, are continuing on the path undertaken for some time, and, using the tools at their disposal – asset management and lending – consolidating their role as agents of sustainable development for their territories and the country as a whole”.

The full version of the Report can be downloaded from the ACRI website here.