More Than Just a Bank

Our way of being a bank also involves our interest in the world of culture. And if “promoting culture” is an ambitious task for us, then we dedicate our resources to and make a commitment toward creating opportunities for interaction between the general public and the world of knowledge, history, and art.

In addition to its main activities of offering banking and financial services, Banca Popolare di Sondrio has always promoted cultural initiatives and activities that are in line with the mission of the “popular bank.” It seeks to promote both the economic and social growth of local communities, which also means safeguarding historical, artistic, and cultural wealth as well as disseminating knowledge and creating recognition.

The cultural promotions of Banca Popolare di Sondrio have always focused on its native territory, where the bank has its “feet, heart, and head,” with the purpose of promoting and enhancing the many aspects of nature and resources available to humans.

There has been a “dialogue” over the years that is based on a true liberal spirit. One example is an initiative in 1961, the only one of its kind, in which the bank called upon some of the major Italian artists of that time – Sassu Migneco, Morlotti, Spilimbergo, and Cantatore, to name just a few – to “paint” the Valtellina. The
result was a valuable modern art gallery dedicated to the Valtellina landscape, leading to the production of the catalog 14 Painters in Valtellina and Valchiavenna. A literary counterpart to that operation was the promotion of the novel-diary The Adventure in Valtellina, written by the renowned writer and director Mario Soldati. The work inspired the documentary Cliffs of Wine by Ermanno Olmi in 2009, which focused on winegrowing in Valtellina. The bank also supported the featured terraced vineyards in obtaining UNESCO World Heritage recognition.

Banca Popolare di Sondrio also supported another initiative that is unique in the Italian banking world: http://www.popsoarte. it. It is an innovative internet communication project founded in 2004 that is dedicated to all art lovers. In a new and surprising manner, it provides a series of virtual exhibitions that presents works that are already on the bank’s website – to revisit the history of art through the bank’s very own art masterpieces. Today the institute is able to ensure, thanks to modern computer technology, complete accessibility, including for the blind, for whom special cards have been designed, along with the development of the most sophisticated technological devices.

In enhancing its art gallery, Banca Popolare di Sondrio has, as always, focused on boosting the artistic heritage of the province of Sondrio. In October 2007, in the presence of the Minister of Education, the Honorable Dr. Giuseppe Fioroni, Banca Popolare di Sondrio inaugurated the Luigi Credaro Library, named after the eponymous educator born in Valtellinawho was a Member of Parliament, Senator, and Minister of Education.

It is a library “for the territory” and allows access to the substantial and valuable archive and book wealth owned by Banca Popolare di Sondrio. It includes important and coveted correspondence by the economist and sociologist Vilfredo Pareto, together with the archives and library of Battista Leoni, a learned celebrity from Sondrio. This is all thanks to a number of generous donations made by customers and shareholders.

The bank’s publishing activities, which have developed considerably alongside the institutional banking business over almost half a century, have produced a large number of publications mainly aimed at enhancing the human and environmental aspects of the province of Sondrio, and which are also accessible on the dedicated website.

The prestigious “Notiziario,” established in 1973 and distributed by the bank every four months, boasts an ongoing collaboration of some of the most prestigious names in Italian journalism and publishing, as well as notable figures such as Pope Emeritus Joseph Ratzinger. These contributions make it a quality magazine, an observation on today’s society, its transformations, its problems, and its prospects as well as an outlook on the socioeconomic reality of the province of Sondrio. The publication, also available in the online version, helped the bank obtain the Guggenheim Award in 1999 for the “bank for culture.”

The intense “cultural activity” is also realized through conferences and meetings that are open to the public. The last 40 years have seen more than 100 speakers at the conference room in Sondrio, including some of the most authoritative national and international representatives from the worlds of politics, economy, culture, journalism, sports, and entertainment. The events are alsoaccessible via the bank’s website.

Banca Popolare di Sondrio is also extremely active in the field of education and the dissemination of knowledge with events and projects that are dedicated to Italian students. The subsidiary of the bank Pirovano Stelvio SpA – the Sky and Mountain University – at Stelvio Pass has signed a memorandum of agreement with the Italian Ministry of Education to offer Italian students courses on various topics such as nature, water, energy, and peace.

At the Stelvio Pass, the bank supported the creation of the Donegani Museum, where, with its extensively documented and illustrated images and photographs from the past, visitors are able to piece together the extraordinary puzzle of the history of the Pass, with an impressive reconstruction of the trenches of the “Great War.” To commemorate the outbreak of World War One, Banca Popolare di Sondrio is supporting the documentary film Stelvio – Crossroads of Peace.

On the domestic scene, Banca Popolare di Sondrio presents itself as a highly active player, not only in the economics and finance fields, but also as an intermediary encouraging the promotion of culture.