Rome, 26 September 2024 – Nina Schindler, CEO of the European Association of Cooperative Banks (EACB), participated today in the event “United for Cooperation: Dialogue Between Italian and Portuguese Cooperative Credit”, hosted by Federcasse at the Palazzo della Cooperazione. The event brought together cooperative credit representatives from Italy, Portugal, and Brussels to promote collaboration, share good practices, and discuss the key geopolitical and legislative developments shaping the sector and the economic environment at national and EU levels.
Sergio Gatti, Managing Director of Federcasse, provided a detailed presentation on major trends and characteristics of the Italian credit cooperatives, while Confcooperative highlighted cooperative’s broader impact across key Italian sectors of healthcare, construction, and agriculture. Additionally, one of the central institutions of the Italian credit cooperatives and rural savings banks groups, Iccrea, showcased its sustainability initiatives, emphasising innovative approaches that align financial services with environmental objectives.
Federação Nacional das Caixas de Crédito Agrícola Mútuo (FENACAM) President Jorge Manuel da Piedade Volante emphasised the relevance of these occasions of mutual learning, pointing at the strong link in the cooperative banking family and the shared aim to support local growth.
Offering the broader European perspective, the EACB CEO Nina Schindler stressed the vital role cooperative banks will play addressing Europe’s economic and societal challenges in the next years. With the incoming College of Commissioners under Ursula von der Leyen’s new mandate, the EU will seek to streamline processes and building upon recommendations from mandated reports like the Draghi’s on European competitiveness, get more investment and adopt a new approach to reforms.
“As cooperative banks are the main lenders to SMEs, farmers and rural communities across Europe, the EACB has in numerous occasions – such as in its contributions to the Strategic Dialogue on the Future Agriculture and its resulting report, as well as in recent recommendations to policymakers – firmly advocated the importance of well-calibrated policies that create a positive policy environment that unlocks cooperative banks’ full funding potential. As the Commission’s agenda for the new term begins to materialise, we will accompany the implementation of the relevant recommendations to ensure the solutions put forward are practical for our cooperative banks, their members, clients and broader European communities” Ms Schindler noted.