Alberto Ribolla: Confidi Systema, one of Italy's largest credit guarantee consortia, must have the ambition to provide innovative financial instruments directly to SMEs

The extraordinary general meetings of the members of Confidi Lombardia, Federfidi Lombarda, Artigianfidi Lombardia, Co.f.a.l. – Consorzio fidi agricoltori lombardi, and Confidi Province Lombarde concluded today, having definitively approved the merger by incorporation into Artigianfidi Lombardia, thus creating Confidi Systema!.
Confidi Systema! represents significant value: approximately 60,000 member companies, 1,215 million in outstanding loans, 583 million in outstanding guarantees, an NPL coverage ratio of 73.81%, a Total Capital Ratio of 20.54%, 255 million euros in available liquidity, and it will generate 2.5 million euros in economies of scale.

Confidi Systema! has fully seized the opportunities offered by the recent Lombardy Region call for tenders in conjunction with the Chamber of Commerce system, sharing the need to make the entire credit supply chain more efficient, both through the rationalisation of credit guarantee consortia and by the various actors involved taking on new responsibilities to modernise the system and provide increasingly effective responses to businesses regarding access to credit.

By aggregating five intersectoral Lombard credit guarantee consortia—covering agriculture, crafts, industry, services, and the tertiary sector—into a single entity, Confidi Systema! represents a solid and balanced anchor for the market, an ideal condition for being recognised as a primary partner by the banking system. Professionalism, expertise, and personalised service complete the guarantee offering for Lombard businesses and beyond.

Confidi Systema! is also the result of a strong shared regional project by Confartigianato, Confagricoltura, and Confindustria in Lombardy, with the goal of offering businesses a tool that allows proprietary finance and guarantees to converge towards the real economy, including by introducing innovative solutions to diversify the sources of credit access for businesses.

“Today’s alliance is both a gamble and a vision,” states Alberto Ribolla, President of Confindustria Lombardia. “We have reasoned beyond associative paradigms to create a new entity that is financially sound and possesses great negotiating power in the credit market. The union of first- and second-tier credit guarantee consortia and intersectoral consortia,” adds Alberto Ribolla , “creates one of the largest credit guarantee consortia in Italy. Confidi Systema must therefore not only operate as a first-tier consortium, but must have the ambition to provide innovative financial instruments directly to SMEs.”

“Confidi Systema! will have significant critical mass,” declares Eugenio Massetti, President of Confartigianato Lombardia , “optimising processes, resources, and management costs without compromising the proximity and closeness to the local area that remain essential elements of our DNA, as well as the founding reasons for our activity. We strongly pursued this objective,” continues Massetti, “proposing a model that was deemed successful and therefore valued. I am certain that Confidi Systema,” concludes Massetti, “will be able to make a great contribution during this transition phase for businesses to recover and support Lombard competitiveness.”

“Together we are signing up to a very high and strategic goal,” concludes Matteo Lasagna, President of Confagricoltura Lombardia , “after more than 5 years of crisis, we want to be positive actors and create a real turning point for the relaunch and further development of the entire Lombard economy. Furthermore, in this context, Confidi Systema! stands as one of the most important interprofessional tools ever implemented, which I hope will become a true best practice to aim for in order to provide the business world with effective and efficient support tools.”

Confidi Systema! combines critical mass and proximity through a widespread presence across the region, thanks to the relationship with financial agencies managed in close synergy with the relevant associations.
Confidi Systema! will be headquartered in Milan.

The official presentation of Confidi Systema, scheduled for the autumn, will take place during a conference organised in Milan in the presence of all relevant stakeholders (member companies, public institutions, trade associations, and credit institutions), where the strategic lines, objectives, and organisation will be illustrated.

Attachments

• Press Release_ Confidi Systema! a new way of doing credit guarantees_def.pdf