Global Insights and Inspiration from Intesa Sanpaolo

Turin, birthplace of Italy’s beloved Fiat 500, prides itself today on being a fertile ground for innovation, allowing nascent tech companies to test and develop ideas for the cities of the future. Intesa Sanpaolo supports this, having paired with Techstars, a specialist in the nurture of nascent tech companies, to form the Techstars smart mobility acceleration programme. Hear from participants in the programme and the head of Techstars on how Turin is leading the way on smart city development.

At the Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center’s AI Lab, the team has developed proprietary software that superpowers market risk assessment. Listen to the podcast to find out more about the department and the project, plus what AI can do for business and finance.

Jaron Lanier helped to create virtual reality, so he’s no technophobe. Yet today he wants to spread the word that social media in its current form is harming all of us – from individual mental health all the way up to plurality in politics and healthy competition in business. In an interview following his virtual Novathon appearance, Lanier discusses his ideas for a positive future in social media, arguing that it all starts with changing the business model.

2020 has thrown a lot at the world generally – and business and finance are no exception. Covid-19 has stalled business investment and Brexit looms over the eurozone. But the issue of climate change eclipses all of this. Stefano Del Punta, Intesa Sanpaolo’s chief financial officer, explains how using finance to change things for good is a big part of the bank’s identity, as well as the future post-Brexit and Covid-19, in the most recent instalment of the Intesa Sanpaolo Talks.

Despite deep personal challenges, Artemisia Gentileschi became a master painter in 17th-century Europe, a storyteller who brought a unique angle to her subjects, getting under their skin to bring them to life in paint. A new exhibition, sponsored by Intesa Sanpaolo, explores Gentileschi’s life and work for the first time in the UK. Artemisia at the National Gallery fulfils the underlying objective of Intesa Sanpaolo’s ‘Progetto Cultura’ – to promote Italy’s artistic heritage beyond its national borders, in Europe and the rest of the world. Listen to the podcast to hear art critic Alastair Smart, National Gallery curator Letizia Treves and Laurence Aliquot, Director of Promotion, Marketing and Cultural Partnerships at Intesa Sanpaolo, discuss highlights from Artemisia, the first major exhibition of the artist’s work in the UK.

Trend analysis is one of three Innovation Center departments at Intesa Sanpaolo, working in synergy with the AI lab and neuroscience lab to help predict the shape of the future and pass that knowledge on to clients. But how can it predict the future, particularly at a time when everything is changing so quickly? This podcast features interviews with the team, who share what they are working on and how they go about getting to know what will happen tomorrow, today.

The European Commission has set out a 35-point action plan to help transform business to a Circular Economy by 2030. In this podcast, we hear from Joanna Drake, deputy director-general for mobility and environment at the European Commission, and Francesca Passamonti, head of European regulatory and public affairs at Intesa Sanpaolo. Both discuss how the plan aims to support business into the positive change that will make Europe greener and more competitive.

Inside the Museo del Cenacolo Vinciano, a team set up by Intesa Sanpaolo used a variety of sense-tracking devices to measure neurological response to The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci. Listen to hear their findings and discover why a bank has a neuroscience team at all…

In April 2020, Intesa Sanpaolo announced it would be working with another of Italy's most famous names to advance the Circular Economy. The Italian bank has lent €200m to tyre-maker Pirelli under strict circular conditions, part of a wider €800m sustainability loan taken out by the company. In this episode of Intesa Sanpaolo Talks, we explore how, as a lender, Intesa Sanpaolo can help speed up the transformation to a global Circular Economy.

Nothing in our lifetimes has had a greater or more rapid economic impact than the Covid-19 crisis. Its effects have been felt faster and by more people than even the crisis of 2008. How will it play with the already strained relationships of the US and China, or the UK and EU? Luca Mezzomo, Intesa Sanpaolo’s head of macroeconomic research, outlines his thoughts on the global economic outlook after Covid-19 in this, the first of five macroeconomic discussions.

Two years ago, the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design opened an outpost in Costa Rica. From the outside, this might appear to be a random office move. But, explains Simona Maschi, co-founder and director of the CIID, Costa Rica is the perfect base from which to work on the biggest design problem of our generation: that of saving the planet. This podcast is an interview with Maschi, explaining the process of interaction design and how it might help in our eco-emergency.

Two years ago, Intesa Sanpaolo launched a €5bn loan fund for businesses and projects supporting the Circular Economy. It has been highly successful, with €1.2bn loaned to 95 such initiatives. In this episode, three people behind sustainability at Intesa Sanpaolo explain the criteria used to decide who gets funding, why investors need educating on sustainability and why innovative thinking is more important than ever before. This podcast was recorded before the latest lending figures became available, so those in the recording differ slightly.

What would a circular city look like? It would run on renewable energy and have buildings that can change their function and the way they work over time. We would have shared transport facilities, no single-use passenger vehicles, and there would be lots of green space and urban farming. Yet cities have evolved to such an overwhelming level of complexity that, in reality, changing their ways seems almost impossible. In this podcast we hear from Milan, a city taking on the challenge of making better use of its resources.

A new exhibition in Milan brings together for the first time the works of Antonio Canova (1757-1822) and the younger Danish artist Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844), who were both contemporaries and rivals. Canova and Thorvaldsen were both neo-classicist sculptors working in Italy, sometimes creating works inspired by the same subject, and both working for the same people (including Napoléon and the popes, dukes and monarchs of their time). While Thorvaldsen could never master Canova’s sensuality with marble, he eventually moved beyond imitation to form his own distinct and celebrated style. This podcast features a walk through the exhibition with Galleria d’Italia coordinator Giovanni Morale and expert insight into the two artists from art critic Alastair Smart.

Alessandro Vitale is head of Intesa Sanpaolo’s Hong Kong branch and its Asia-Pacific hub. He stresses the sheer size of the opportunity for Italian, British and other European business in the Greater Bay Area – taking in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau. “The area has the same GDP as that of Spain or Australia. The peculiarity of this region is that GDP is going to double in the next 10 years. That’s a big element of growth in this region of the world.”This podcast explores how Intesa Sanpaolo is introducing Italian, UK and other European businesses to the area’s opportunities. Rather than simply connecting companies with future revenue, a roadshow set up in conjunction with Elite (a business-enabling company linked to the FTSE 100) shows businesses how they can thrive through cross-cultural innovation.

It takes 23,000 litres of water to make a single T-shirt and a pair of jeans. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Candiani Denim – an Intesa Sanpaolo customer that supplies the popular material for numerous high-end brands – works with high tech materials to make its denim kinder to the environment. Alberto Candiani explains how his company is helping to reduce denim production waste and consumption, while retaining the charm of the well-worn fabric. We also hear from Laura Balmond, of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Make Fashion Circular initiative, on how they are engaging circular economy thinking with fibre producers, materials makers, retailers, brands and clothing recyclers, to make fashion greener.

AI, blockchain, crypto, micro payments, regtech and insurtech are all shifting the working processes of banks. This year, Intesa’s Novathon has evolved from a hackathon for new technologies into a conference focused on innovation and culture transformation, including a talk from the co-founder of Apple, Steve Wozniak. This podcast features an interview with the tech guru at the Novathon event. We hear his reflections on the future of AI and why companies need to use tech ethically. Maurice Lisi, Head of Multichannel and CRM in Intesa Sanpaolo, and Pál Simák, chairman-CEO of Intesa Sanpaolo’s Hungarian subsidiary, CIB Bank also feature, giving insight into how tech can help Intesa Sanpaolo be always on for the consumer.

In the automotive sector, there’s an estimated $400bn to $600bn worth of revenue opportunity in the reworking of old parts. Yet the principles of the circular economy are still largely ignored in the everyday business of large automotive manufacturers, which continue to work mostly with traditional linear economy methods. This podcast features Sermec, an Italian car parts company that began using circular economy practices back in 1939, and continues operating the model today, passing huge savings on to its customers while also benefiting the environment. Giovanni Ricci, CEO of Sermec, tells us why he values the model; and Quentin Drewell of Accenture gives the overall picture on the untapped potential of giving automotive parts a second life.

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation is on a mission to accelerate the transition to a circular economy. Intesa Sanpaolo has been a global partner of the Foundation since 2015 as its financial services lead. With that commitment extended this year, we hear from Andrew Morlet, the Foundation’s chief executive, in another episode of the Italian Way To A Circular Economy podcast series. He explains the importance of the relationship to efforts to move away from the linear economic model of make-use-dispose towards regenerative practices.

The relationship between art and technology is celebrated in a unique exhibition, From Clay to Algorithm. It is a collaboration between Intesa Sanpaolo and the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art near Turin. The third episode of the Intesa Sanpaolo Talks podcast programme explores the exhibition. We hear from Castello di Rivoli’s chief curator and curator of collections, Marcella Beccaria, and Alastair Smart, an influential art critic who discuss its innovative non-linear approach and highlight some of its key exhibits.

How can we fulfil our most basic needs without destroying our planet at the same time?In this second episode of our series on The Italian Way to a Circular Economy, we look at how producers and consumers are changing the way they think about food. From Intesa Sanpaolo’s lab dedicated to the circular economy, to a food company that’s banned plastic straws, we discover how one of the world’s most resource-intensive sectors is pivoting towards sustainable business practices. Among the guests are Massimiano Tellini, Global Head Circular Economy at the Intesa Sanpaolo, Stefano Martini, Head of Intesa Sanpaolo's Circular Economy Lab and Stanislao Fabbrino, Ceo of Fruttagel, an Italian food co-operative that eradicated its use of plastic straws. Also, in this episode we hear from Nick Jeffries, who works on food initiatives at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and suggests that by using more diverse food products in recipes we can help nature.Ludovica Principato of the Roma Tre University, on the other hand, highlights how 1.3bn tons of food globally is wasted and how this could theoretically feed 850m people suffering with hunger.

Imagine a world without waste, a virtuous loop of reuse and regeneration.In this first episode of our series on The Italian Way to A Circular Economy, we look at how Intesa Sanpaolo is helping to build a circular economy. From the Italian embassy in London, through the bank's relationship with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation to the first international investment from Intesa Sanpaolo's €5bn loan facility, we explore how turning words into action is making a real difference.