Bancherul - BANCI / ENGLISH / UniCredit, Trade Associations and Confidi join forces to support the economy. National action plan makes funds available for small enterprises

Five billion euros to facilitate loans to Italian small enterprises. It is called "Impresa Italia" and is a concrete project of UniCredit Group together with Trade Associations and with Confidi to finance small enterprises, which are among the most important driving forces of Italian economy.

Through "Impresa Italia", UniCredit takes advantage of the Confidi guarantee to provide five billion euros in new financing for small enterprises (three billion for micro-enterprises, two billion for small and medium-sized enterprises), which can count both on short-term loans to increase short-term liquidity as well as for mid and long-term loans for investments.

Alessandro Profumo, CEO of UniCredit Group, presented the project in Rome today and together with the representatives of the most important Trade Associations (Casartigiani, CIA, CNA, Coldiretti, Compagnia delle Opere, Confagricoltura, Confapi, Confartigianato, Confcommercio, Confindustria) and the five most important Confidi associations (CreditAgri, Fedart Fidi, Federascomfidi, Federconfidi, Fincredit) signed a declaration of intent to kick-off the project, which commits the financial institution to making an immediate contribution to economic recovery. "Many signals indicate that the crisis on the financial markets will spill over to the economy", Profumo said. "The main priority of the banking system in this phase is to work on limiting the consequences of the crisis and to ensure the necessary support to the economy with loans. With this initiative UniCredit would like to send a concrete signal that it stands behind businesses, especially small businesses that make up a considerable part of this Country's production structure."

In the coming weeks UniCredit, Trade Associations and Confidi will spread the news about the "Impresa Italia" Project over their networks and at a local level elucidate the conditions for implementing it. In individual areas a series of agreements on the operational implementation of the funds provided will be signed. These agreements will be tailored and include a quantification of the provided funds according to the needs of the various geographical regions.

The Project "Impresa Italia" was possible thanks to UniCredit�s excellent relationship with trade associations. UniCredit was the first Italian bank to develop a model for a partnership with the Trade Associations and Confidi. More than two years ago it created a fully dedicated structure to its partners that promoted a series of targeted initiatives through which it was able to gain valuable knowledge of the requirements and potential of companies and of local business environment. Since 2006 UniCredit has paid out more than three billion euros to approximately 65,000 small enterprises thanks to the cooperation with Confidi.

Rome, 5 November 2008