Work and Business

Ten billion from Intesa Sanpaolo to support employment

The bank launches 'S-Loan Soluzione Lavoro', to encourage investment in innovation and new hires, especially of young people and women

7 July 2025

2' min read

Key points

In three years, EUR 10 billion
Employment, the gap with Europe
Innovation lever of competitiveness

2' min read

The objective, as recently announced by Intesa Sanpaolo's CEO and Ceo Carlo Messina, is to encourage Italian companies to make innovative investments that will increase competitiveness and productivity and - as a result - lead to increased employment in the long term.

In three years, 10 billion euro

With this ambition, Intesa Sanpaolo has launched a new loan, 'S-Loan Soluzione Lavoro', for Banca dei Territori's corporate customers, which aims to encourage employment growth while supporting investments to increase competitiveness, through an additional bonus mechanism, which grants an interest rate subsidy in the case of new hires, particularly of young people and women.

The measure, the bank explains, is inspired by the premium IRES model and can count on the availability of EUR 10 billion over the next three years, as part of the EUR 410 billion planned by the Group to support projects related to the NRP.

Intesa Sanpaolo therefore proposes itself as a facilitator to implement the benefits of the companies for which S-Loan Soluzione Lavoro is destined, who decide to increase their production capacity, create a new industrial site, create cutting-edge products and services, and promote process automation.

Employment, the gap with Europe

"The formal commitment to hire new staff represents for the entrepreneurial entities the necessary requirement to obtain the facility on the reference rate of the loan both at the underwriting stage and during the amortisation period," reads the note issued by Intesa Sanpaolo.

Employment in Italy has grown in recent years, but not at a rate sufficient to close the gap with other European countries. Among young people aged between 15 and 29, the employment rate is 19.2 per cent compared to 34.8 per cent in the European Union. Another important aspect is the share of workers employed on open-ended contracts: in both the Italian average and that of young people, our country ranks among the worst in Europe.

Innovation lever of competitiveness

"The purpose of our intervention, which counts on an availability of 10 billion euro, is not only to guarantee new economic resources to companies, but to ensure precisely through credit incentives to those companies that focus on technological investments and associate the commitment to hire," explained Stefano Barrese, head of Intesa Sanpaolo's Banca dei Territori Division. "Investing in technology and at the same time bringing young people into the company, bringing in new talent, can represent a new growth engine for the country. SMEs have a clear path to development regardless of the uncertainties of the context. From our observatory, we see positive credit dynamics in the first months of the year for both companies and households, and we strongly believe that in this phase it is important to accompany the country's employment growth by focusing on very relevant areas of expertise. The digital transition and artificial intelligence certainly represent growth and development opportunities for the economy, but in order to seize them, it is necessary to keep human capital and training central".