Financing

ICSC, the call for Culture Common Mission 2024 kicks off

The Istituto per il Credito Sportivo e Culturale makes available to local authorities funds amounting to EUR 30 million at zero interest over 10 years for projects to enhance and protect cultural heritage

by Roberta Capozucca

28 November 2024

3' min read

Key points

ICSC's commitment through the Culture Fund
The Evolution of the Institute: from Sport to Culture

3' min read

The Istituto per il Credito Sportivo e Culturale S.p.A. (ICSC) has launched the new edition of Cultura Missione Comune, the call for tenders that offers local authorities fixed-rate loans for cultural heritage interventions. With a ceiling of EUR 30 million, the funds will be disbursed on all loans contracted by 31 December 2024, with the possibility of obtaining full interest relief for loans of up to ten years' duration. Applications, to be submitted by 12 December 2024, may cover prevention, maintenance, restoration and protection activities, as well as projects for the conservation, preservation and enhancement of the cultural heritage aimed at improving public enjoyment. Also eligible are renovation, expansion, energy efficiency, removal of architectural barriers, bringing cultural buildings up to standard, and digitisation activities. The amounts that may be requested and the interest subsidies will be modulated according to the demographic characteristics of the requesting body, according to the following criteria:

- Small municipalities with up to 5,000 inhabitants: up to EUR 2 million.

- Municipalities with a population between 5,000 and 100,000 inhabitants, Unions of Municipalities and Municipalities in associated form: up to EUR 4 million.

- Municipalities with over 100,000 inhabitants, Metropolitan Cities, Provinces and Regions: up to EUR 6 million.

The ICSC's commitment through the Culture Fund

The Culture Common Mission call for tenders is part of the path initiated by the Istituto per il Credito Sportivo e Culturale to support the enhancement of Italy's cultural heritage. In the three previous editions, 109 loans were granted for a total value of EUR 94.8 million, which helped to generate total investments in the public cultural heritage in excess of EUR 200 million. The birth of the call and its ceiling can be traced back to the so-called Relaunch Decree (DL 34/2020) where Article 184, paragraph 4, established the Culture Fund to stem the effects of the pandemic and support the recovery of the cultural and creative sector in the years to come through interventions for the protection, conservation, restoration, valorisation and digitisation of cultural heritage. The allocation of resources was structured as follows:

- 30 million to finance up to 80 per cent of the planned costs of conservation and enhancement work on cultural heritage, with amounts ranging from a minimum of EUR 100,000 to a maximum of EUR 1 million.

- 20 million to finance a guarantee fund, managed separately by the Istituto per il Credito Sportivo, for the granting of interest subsidies and guarantees aimed at safeguarding and enhancing the cultural heritage.

Since then, the Grant Fund has been successively refinanced in 2022 with €4,582,710.78 of interest subsidies from the MiC Development and Cohesion Plan, in 2023 with €10 million from the MiC - Mef Interministerial Decree No. 189 of 4 May 2023, and in 2024 with €5 million from the MiC - Mef Interministerial Decree No. 300 of 26 September 2024.

The Evolution of the Institute: from Sport to Culture

Istituto per il Credito Sportivo e Culturale S.p.A. is an independently managed Italian public bank founded in 1957. Since its inception, it has worked alongside public and private entities to support development projects, mainly through subsidised loans for sports facilities. Thanks to this activity, the Bank has financed more than 75 per cent of Italy's existing sports facilities, making use of special state-owned funds such as the Fondo Contributi negli Interessi per Finanziamenti all'Impiantistica Sportiva and the Fondo di Garanzia per Mutui all'Impiantistica Sportiva.

Since 2005, the Institute has begun to extend its field of action to the cultural goods and activities sector, a change that was formalised on 3 July 2024 with the transformation of the Institute into a joint-stock company under singular law and the subsequent change of name to Istituto per il Credito Sportivo e Culturale S.p.A. Although culture still accounts for a limited share of the bank's assets of 8.1%, it is a sector in which the Institute intends to continue to invest and which, according to the 2024 half-yearly report, already shows an increase of EUR 5 million compared to June 23, thanks to new loans to finance film productions.

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