ACRi: Annual Report on Foundations of Banking Origin approved

The Board of ACRI has approved the twenty-fifth Annual Report, which presents aggregate data from the 2019 financial statements of foundations of banking origin. These are the main data contained in the Report and relating to the 2019 financial statements of the 86 Italian foundations of banking origin:

• book value of equity: 40.3 billion euros, up from 39.6 billion in the previous year (+1.6%);

• significant increase in total income, which amounted to 2.601 billion euros, compared to 1.082 billion in 2018 (+140.4%);

• consequent more than proportional increase in the surplus for the year, which rose from 575 million euros in 2018 to 1.909 billion euros in 2019 (+232%), considering the near-stability of total charges, which amounted to 261 million euros (+4.6%);

• significant increase in tax charges, which, particularly considering the withholding tax on financial income, not recognised in the financial statements, rose from 323 million euros in 2018 to 510 million euros in 2019;

• despite the sharp increase in the 2019 surplus, there was a decrease in disbursements, as these are now mainly made on the basis of the surplus from the previous year. Disbursements in fact fell from 1.025 billion euros in 2018 to 911 million euros in 2019 (-11.1%), a level that is substantially in line with the average for recent years.

The Chair of ACRI and Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo Francesco Profumo commented: “The report highlights extremely positive operating results for foundations of banking origin in 2019. The recovery of financial markets from a particularly difficult 2018 led to a significant increase in overall income, which was reflected in the more than three-fold increase in the operating surplus compared to the previous year. On the disbursements front, considering the methods for determining the resources to be allocated to institutional activity, based mainly on the operating surpluses generated in the previous year, there was a slight decrease, while the amount of resources allocated to the stabilisation funds increased for future disbursements. The foundations thus confirm their commitment to the communities and the charitable sector, both in the field of welfare and beyond, with the aim of combating inequalities, starting with child educational poverty. This commitment was further confirmed in the first half of 2020, when the foundations made an extraordinary effort to respond to the pandemic and support the relaunch of the country”.The full version of the Report can be downloaded from the ACRI website at: https://www.acri.it/rapporto_annuale