The renewal of the three -year convention between the Santa Maria del Rescue Ets Foundation was signed in Genoa, operating throughout Liguria and in the territory of the Archdiocese of Genoa, Banca Mediolanum and the Mediolanum EF Foundation. The goal: to continue supporting over -indebted people and in economic difficulty, offering them access to safe and dignified credit, alternative to usury circuits.
Monsignor Andrea Parodi, episcopal vicar for economic affairs and the service of charity were present at the signature; Agata Millerani, president of the Santa Maria del Rescue Anti -usury Foundation; and Giovanni Pirovano, president of Banca Mediolanum.
The Convention, valid for the three-year period 2025-2028, makes available to the Ligurian Foundation a rotary ceiling of 750,000 euros, intended for the provision of unsecured loans of up to 20,000 euros, with a maximum duration of 60 months and a facilitated fixed rate of 1.25%. The funds will be assigned to subjects considered “non -banking”, selected thanks to the work of the volunteers and the listening centers of the territory.
Since 2017, in Liguria, 185 families have already benefited from the project, receiving a total of over 1,363,000 euros in funding. At national level, since 2009, Banca Mediolanum has helped 837 people, alongside the provision of credit also paths of social accompaniment and financial education in collaboration with local foundations.
«Riding dignity and hope – explains Agata Millerani – are keywords of our daily action. This agreement represents a profound sharing of values, a pact that aims to offer not only economic, but also relational and human solutions, because listening and targeted advice can make a difference ».
Of the same tenor the words of the president of Banca Mediolanum Giovanni Pirovano: «Banks must listen to the territory and take responsibility for reducing economic inequalities. Our “rescue loan” is a concrete act of social responsibility that allows people to return to the protagonists of their lives ».
According to the data of the Foundation, the person who addresses the help is often a man, married, with a medium license, employee, with income around 1,200 euros per month and for rent. But requests from women with children also increase. Loans are used to avoid eviction, healing arrears, cope with private medical care when the public service is lacking, facing separations or overcoming addictions, in particular that of online gambling.
The average of loans paid in Liguria is equal to 7,368 euros. In these paths, it is the human support offered by the Volunteers of the Foundation and the bank’s financial consultants, in a network work that combines rigor and proximity.
Currently, Banca Mediolanum has active agreements with 15 foundations participating in the national anti -usury council “San Giovanni Paolo II”, located in eleven Italian regions. In total, a ceiling of 5,850,000 euros was allocated, which made it possible to deliver over 7.7 million euros in favor of the most fragile bands of the population.
In a country where, according to the most recent data, almost 5.7 million people live in conditions of absolute poverty, the fight against wear is not a secondary emergency, but a social priority. And it requires concrete answers, such as those promoted today in Genoa.
In the photo, Giovanni Pirovano and Agata Millerani.
