Sparrow: “For banks either concentration or diversification, I say enough of politics”

Yes to bank concentrations, an even stronger yes to technological and digital innovation, yes also to the green pass in the workplace and smart working; but a convinced no to a new commitment in politics. These are the positions that Corrado Passera, founder of the digital bank Illimity Bank, a past at the helm of Poste Italiane and Minister of Economic Development in the Monti government, expressed to AdnKronos before speaking at the Rimini Meeting. “When everything changes in an economic sector, as in the case of the banking system with the combination of new technologies, new rules, monetary policy with lower rates, you can react in two ways – explains Passera – Either by increasing the size, which allows economies of scale and the possibility of making very strong investments in innovation and thus obtaining considerable consolidation; or by specializing, and at this point the size may be less relevant because excellence prevails “. This second path is the one chosen by Illimity Bank since its foundation. “We give credit to small and medium-sized enterprises, a difficult credit that other banks often deny. We have built a coherent technological system to do this, in which the size is not relevant: starting from scratch, we have grown up to 5 billion in assets and 700 units – said Passera – But the field of consolidation is the path that traditional banks have and in fact there have been many concentrations: it is certainly a way to go, given that in Italy we have gone from one thousand to one hundred banks “. But, Passera warns, “even if we think that consolidation is the only possible answer for traditional banks, in the face of the competitive pressure that has been created, we must always remember that the lever of technology and innovation is always feasible and can replace concentration and scale. This seems to me not yet being very much perceived by the banking world, more courage is needed “. As for the pandemic emergency for the Covid, “unfortunately, we have experienced firsthand how much human and economic suffering has caused the lockdown and at this point the green pass in the workplace must be a strong choice, we have adopted it together with the development of smart working. Being part of a community also means addressing the issue of protecting health, personnel and others “. Passera says he is” optimistic about the use of the resources of the Recovery Plan, the Pnrr has been correctly set on the 235 billion euros to be used in next five years, well focused on the two main directions of digital and environmental; and it has been entrusted to very capable people. For these reasons, I am very positive about the effects that this approach may have “. The founder of Illimity continues his reasoning:” If we applied the same spirit of the NRP also to the share of public investments that we make or could make every year, in five years, an Italy would be built that, in addition to the resources of the NRP, would have those of public investments and European funds: it would reach 1,000 billion euros, for the purpose of growth, also stimulating the private investments of virtuous companies that must be fiscally rewarded “. which could also encourage his return to the political scene, after the brief experience of Italia Unica? “No: then I was unable to build the movement I had in mind and now I am totally taken by this private experience with Illimity”. , however, urges you not to limit yourself … “I leave this to you to say”, Corrado Passera closes the discussion with a smile. (from the correspondent Enzo Bonaiuto)