Launch of the Partnership Between SACE and illimity Bank to Accelerate the Sustainable Transition of Italian Businesses

SACE and illimity Bank strengthen their collaboration with the aim of accelerating Italy’s sustainable transition, supporting the Country’s businesses in their investments to reduce environmental impact. The partnership will enable illimity Bank to make the SACE guarantee available to companies for use in their plans for climate change mitigation and adaptation, pollution prevention and control, the protection of water and marine resources, the protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems, sustainable mobility and the circular economy, in line with the Green New Deal and the European Union taxonomy.

Businesses – limited companies with a turnover of up to 500 million euro – will be able to benefit from SACE’s 80% Green Guarantee, granted at market conditions through a fully standardized and digitalized process.

To make the Green Guarantee even more accessible, SACE has simplified and further digitalized the process, improving the customer experience thanks, inter alia, to a dedicated portal. Among the innovations is an increase in financing flexibility, including the possibility of multiple disbursements. The new means of accessing the Green Guarantee is a further important step in the set of digital transformation goals that SACE is pursuing in line with the strategy and objectives of its INSIEME 2025 business plan.

In addition, the changes made to the instrument will facilitate and accelerate the signing of new green conventions.

“Businesses that invest in sustainability are more competitive and resilient, and this holds in particular for SMEs, which are a pillar of our INSIEME 2025 business plan,” stressed Daniela Cataudella, SACE’s Managing Director Digital Business. “With our Green Guarantee, we in SACE have already supported over 500 projects in Italy having a total value of 12 billion euros and are daily committed to supporting investments that are beneficial in accelerating sustainable transition processes in all areas and sectors. A commitment that we are putting into practice with the leading players in the system and the Italian financial institutions, such as illimity Bank, with whom this present arrangement can be added to the many partnerships already in place, in order to strengthen our support for ecological transition in Italy”.

“illimity is a sustainable native company since from its very beginnings it has followed a process of integrating ESG objectives into its business, governance, and process models,” commented Stefano Ortolano, Head of Crossover & Acquisition Finance in illimity. “The approach we are taking makes us a reference partner throughout Italy for SMEs intending to achieve and/or improve their sustainability objectives. The agreement with SACE, therefore, fits perfectly into our strategy, enabling us to further extend the services provided in support of sustainable transition that lie at the heart of our growth plans, which are being given a renewed focus for 2024 and impact not only businesses but also the local area as a whole.”