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Group Strategy

Digitalisation, strategic partnerships, efficiency and sustainability are the Bank’s drivers for growth over the next three years. 

The Group’s strategy for 2022-2024 is based on an ambitious Business Plan which leverages Banca Ifis’ specific expertise and will enable it to increase industrial profits, strengthen its competitive positioning and create value for all stakeholders and for the territory.   

Banca Ifis will continue to focus on profitable business segments offering high potential for growth such as Commercial & Corporate Banking for SMEs and NPLs, in order to maintain and strengthen its leadership position. 

The plan outlines a long-term vision fully consistent with the Mission: Banca Ifis will continue to offer excellent products, focusing on digitisation and innovation to better support businesses and people, and making sustainability a lever to create value. Generating a tangible impact on the real economy, supporting Italian entrepreneurship, promoting financial and social inclusion: these are the broad priorities that guide the group’s strategies.

“

Over the next three years, our Bank aims to become increasingly digital, open to new partnerships, efficient, and focused on sustainable growth. And that is D.O.E.S.: digital, open, efficient, sustainable.

Frederik Geertman, Chief Executive Officer of Banca Ifis

Expected results in numbers

400
million euros

in cumulative net income over the period 2022-2024 

200
million euros

in cumulative dividends over the period 2022-2024 

161
million euros

in net income in 2024 

15.1
%

CET1 expected in 2024  

Moody’s assigned Banca Ifis a rating of Baa3 (investment grade) with a stable outlook due to the Bank’s profitability and solid position in terms of capital and liquidity. 

The four pillars of the Business Plan

  • Digital: 76 million in new digital technology investments and a dedicated team to accelerate innovation; 
  • Open: a “Bank-as-a-platform” model with the launch of strategic partnerships in both the distribution of credit products and the purchase and management of NPLs; 
  • Efficient: rigorous cost management, automation and redesign of processes to fund investments in digitalisation for growth;  
  • Sustainable: concrete actions to develop the core business according to ESG criteria, and the establishment of a Social Impact Lab to promote projects of high social impact. 
“

With the 2022-2024 Business Plan, Banca Ifis has confirmed it is a challenger bank that pursues objectives capable of generating sustainable value in highly profitable sectors.

Ernesto Fürstenberg Fassio, Chairman of Banca Ifis

Banca Ifis' Business Plan 2022-2024

Banca Ifis D.O.E.S: a breakdown of objectives

  • Investments in digitalisation of approximately 76 million euros and creation of a dedicated team for the Bank’s digital transformation.  
  • In the Corporate and Commercial Banking segment, doubling of customer acquisition through digital channels by 2024 (over 40% compared to 25% today), over 90% of disbursements completed in less than 3 days and reduction of average response time, ensuring fully digital relations with customers.  
  • In the NPL Sector, implementation of a strategy of multi-channel contact, with the use of robotics and analytics tools to accelerate recovery processes and reduce onboarding times by 30%, managing more than 20% of volumes digitally and centrally.  
  • Strategic partnerships with specialised players to reduce complexity and fixed costs with the Bank-as-a-platform project.  
  • Expansion of new and existing agreements into new solutions and other customer segments (e.g. digital leasing and private hire). 
  • In the NPL sector, forward flow agreements to improve purchase stability, investment sharing with co-investors to mitigate the impact of calendar provisioning, and partnerships with servicers specialising in non-core segments (e.g. big ticket) to optimise recovery and contain fixed costs.  
  • Rigorous management of courses to fund investments in digital transformation, the Bank-as-a-platform project, efficiency and automation of processes in both the Commercial & Corporate Banking and NPL segments.  
  • Creation of a new centralised Procurement function, renegotiation of contracts, creation of synergies between the companies acquired (Farbanca, formerly Aigis Banca), and greater effectiveness in the recovery of NPLs through low-cost channels in addition to more selective legal actions.  
  • Investment in Ifis People with a plan to recruit 200 resources, of which 150 will be young people, and training and upskilling of employees. 
  • Clear objectives for tangible impact in the three dimensions of ESG: Environment, Social, Governance.  
  • Adherence to the Net-Zero Banking Alliance and commitment to achieve net-zero emissions of the loan portfolio by 2050, setting interim targets for priority sectors by 2030.  
  • Support for the energy transition of small and medium-sized enterprises with the Change PMI project, which provides for the offer of dedicated products and services, such as subsidised loans and services for “scoring” customers’ ESG performance.  
  • Creation of a Social Impact Lab that focuses on three areas – culture, community and health – for the development and promotion of projects that have a social impact inside and outside the company.
  • Creation of a Sustainability Committee to support the activities of strategic direction and define the most relevant projects, while monitoring the achievement of results.  
  • “A” rating obtained from MSCI with the aim of improving positioning.  
  • Supporting and implementing the growth and development activities of Ifis People through inclusion and training programmes, smart-working and work flexibility.
  • The first bank in Italy to receive gender equality certification by the Women Winning Institute for its dynamic, young and qualified team of people and the gender equality of its management: 40% of the top management and 41% of the members of the Board of Directors are women.  

Outlook and financial Targets

A net income of 164 million euros (161 million euros of profit attributable to the Parent Company) and a ROE of 9% are expected in 2024; a cumulative net income of over 400 million euros is expected in the three-year period 2022-2024. The Bank aims to create value for shareholders with cumulative dividends of approximately €200 million over the period 2022-2024 corresponding to a payout ratio of around 50%. CET1 is expected to be 15.1% at 2024 and will conservatively be above 14% throughout the plan. 

Managing the dialogue with Investors

The document “Management policy for the Directors’ dialogue with Investors” regulates managing the dialogue of the Directors of Banca Ifis with shareholders (including institutional investors and asset managers), aimed at favouring Bank transparency towards the financial community and markets, by building, maintaining and developing an active trust relationship with Investors.  

Read the document

Banca Ifis D.O.E.S.: 2022-2024 Business Plan

View the 2022-2024 Business Plan presented to the financial community.

Press Release 2022-2024 Business Plan

View the press release.