The event is part of the series "Ricostruire l’Italia" (Rebuilding Italy): a cycle of conferences organized by Collegio Carlo Alberto to discuss how to restart the Italian economy after the coronavirus crisis. The need to move past a dramatic historical phase can be an occasion to reexamine and tackle the country’s structural problems.
First online event:
The Economics of the Social Bank
September 30, 2020 h. 15:30 - 17:30
Introductory Remarks: Francesco Profumo, President, Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo and Giorgio Barba Navaretti, President, Fondazione Collegio Carlo Alberto
Panel: Gian Maria Gros-Pietro, Chairman, Intesa Sanpaolo, Michael Spence, Emeritus Professor of Economics and Management, Stanford Business School; Recipient of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics.
Moderator: Tonia Mastrobuoni, Correspondent, La Repubblica
Italian/English and English/Italian translation available.
Beside Governments, banks are playing a central role in facing the emergency caused by the Covid pandemic, distributing resources to sustain the economy and the society. At the same time, growing income inequality – exacerbated by the crisis – and environmental issues call for financial institutions and corporations in general to follow socially sustainable business models. Even the most market-driven players, such as large US private equity funds, require that the companies in which they invest pursue socially- and environmentally-sustainable objectives. Similarly, the CEOs of the largest US corporations, as part of the Business Round Table, recently argued that business leaders must set objectives that address social issues and can no longer limit themselves to pursuing the maximization of returns for their shareholders.
This social role, however, must go hand in hand with the banks’ financial stability. Indeed, low interest rates are a levy on banks’ profitability. Even before the pandemic, banking supervisors publicly raised concerns on the ability of banks to cover the cost of capital and generate sustainable profit flows.
How can banks balance the need for sustainable profits and a sustainable society, also contributing to overcome the Covid crisis?
This question will be addressed in a debate between Gian Maria Gros-Pietro and Michael Spence, chaired by Tonia Mastrobuoni.
Gian Maria Gros-Pietro is Chairman of Banca Intesa Sanpaolo, which keeps posting very high profits, levels of capitalization amongst the highest for European banks and at the same times is explicitly tapping sustainable and inclusive growth patterns as one of its key business objectives.
Michael Spence is an Emeritus Professor of Economics and Management and former Dean of Stanford Business School. He is a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and an adjunct professor at SDA Bocconi. In 2001, he received the Nobel Prize for Economics for his contribution, together with Joseph Stiglitz and George Akerlof, to understanding the impact of information asymmetry on economic activity: He dedicated much of his most recent writings to need to review the key ingredients of economic growth and the role of a sustainable model of economic activity. He is the author of “The Next Convergence: The Future of Economic Growth in a Multi-speed World”.
