Mattarella: “Inequality causes hatred, harmony is needed”. Thanks to the CCBs for the protection of the territories

The Federcasse assembly, 140 years after the establishment of the first rural fund in Italy, as a place from which to warn against the problem of inequality and its repercussions on social stability. The President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, quotes Leo Wollemborg, “who would later become a deputy, finance minister, senator. In a report to a congress of French people’s banks – recalls the Head of State – in 1890, he warned: ‘Inequality will cause ever more hatred’, proposing to contribute ‘to the cause of social harmony'”.

Mattarella therefore underlines that the rural banks “have been, ante litteram, interpreters and vehicles of principles such as that of the equality of Italians”. “The credit disbursed to small and medium-sized enterprises, the backbone of the production and employment system, as well as the support to families, mean that it is not only, obviously, a prudent and far-sighted exercise of banking activity but that cooperative banks represent a significant contribution to Italy’s share capital”, continues the President of the Republic.

The Bccs also defend a territorial presence which, due to issues of cost cutting and technological evolution, many large groups are slowly reducing. “The Republic is grateful to you”, says Mattarella, recalling the widespread presence in the internal areas of the country “in contrast with the phenomenon of banking desertification which could seem unstoppable”. “It is significant – underlines the Head of State – to know that the citizens of 723 Municipalities have, as their only banking presence, a cooperative bank; and that a third of the branches are located in Municipalities of the so-called internal areas. It is an economic function, it is a social function, it is a commitment in the wake of the application of the provisions of the Constitution”.

The Head of State underlines what “the president of Federcasse Dell’Erba noted: they spread well-being, with 74% of the capital raised among the shareholders destined for investments in favor of the real economy”.