Social aims of finance

Carmen Hofmann, Secretary General of eabh

Carmen Hofmann is Secretary General of eabh. Previously she worked as a freelance researcher, interpreter and language teacher, management assistant in consulting and event organiser for Frankfurt Fair. She studied economics, Roman and Arab studies in Gießen, Marburg and Bogotá. She is a regular editor of eabh publications.

Rym Ayadi, CASS Business School, City University of London

Rym Ayadi (PhD) is Professor of International Business and Finance and Founding Director of the International Research Centre on Cooperative Finance (IRCCF) at HEC Montreal Business School in Canada.

She is Honorary Visiting Professor at Cass Business School, City University of London. She is Associate Senior Research Fellow at the Euro-Mediterranean University (EMUNI) in Slovenia and the Founder and Scientific Director of the Euro-Mediterranean Network for Economic Studies (EMNES).

She is President of the Euro-Mediterranean Economists Association established in Barcelona since 2012 to contribute to the future of political and socio-economic model in the South Mediterranean region post Arab Spring. Rym’s fields of expertise include: international financial systems; financial markets and institutions; global financial regulation and governance; socio-economic development; and foresight in economies in transition.

Keys to financial success for socially oriented banks. Lessons from the public banks of Naples
Lilia Costabile, University of Naples

Lilia Costabile is Professor of Economics at the University of Naples Federico II, Life Member at Clare Hall, Cambridge, and Visiting Fellow at the Bank of Italy. In 2016, she received the Prize of the President of the Italian Republic, awarded by the Lincei Academy, for her contributions to Political Economy. Since 2016 she is member of the Academic Council of eabh and of the ESHET Council. She is Principal Investigator in the ECB research project, “Minimalism and activism in central banking. Lessons from the history of economic thought”, which ESHET awarded in 2015. She is member of the Pontaniana Academy, Research Afliate at PERI (Political Economy Research Institute), University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and a member of the Comité de Expertos ACPUA (Agencia de Calidad y Prospectiva Universitaria de Aragon, Spain).

In 1600, seven public banks were active in Naples, the capital city of a kingdom that was then part of the Spanish empire. Chartered as ‘public banks’ by the Viceroy between 1584 and 1600, they had already been in operation as the deposit branches of some charitable institutions for many decades, and, in the case of the Holy House of the Santissima Annunziata, for over a century. These institutions comprised two charitable pawnbrokers (Monte di Pietà and Monte dei Poveri), four hospitals (Incurabili, S.Eligio, S.Giacomo e Vittoria, Santissima Annunziata) and one charity offering shelter to indigent young women (Casa dello Spirito Santo). Because of these roots and the continuing role of the charities as their shareholders, the public banks were also called the ‘banks of the charities’ (banchi dei luoghi pii in Italian). Only later, in 1640, the flour-tax farmers created the only for-profit public bank in the Neapolitan system, the Banco del SS.Salvatore. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the public banks functioned as the backbone of the Kingdom of Naples’s financial system, and continued to do so after they merged into the Banco Nazionale di Napoli (1794), later called Banco delle Due Sicilie. After Italy’s unification in 1861, this ancient institution changed its name again to Banco di Napoli, and until 1926 was one of the three issuing institutions in the Kingdom of Italy, when the note-issuing role passed to Bank of Italy exclusively. The Banco di Napoli continued its life as a successful independent bank for most of the twentieth century.

This long experience of financial success raises interesting questions, especially in light of the nature of the original banks. From their very beginning, the public banks of Naples were strange animals, a hybrid between three types of banks. Firstly, they had the nature of both for-profit and not-for-profit banks, because they made profits through their commercial operations but then handed over large shares of their profits to their shareholders, the charities. These devoted these sums to their statutory philanthropic activities. For instance, in addition to the care and lending activities mentioned above, they paid ransoms for captives held as slaves by the Moors, provided dowries for poor women, etc. Secondly, they gave rise to a closely-knit banking system which acted as a kind of collective, proto-central bank, not only because they lent to the Court and gradually became the managers of the public debt, but also, more importantly, because they issued fedi di credito, a circulating note generally accepted as a means of payment and which later became legal tender.

On the basis of documentary evidence, this paper investigates the connections between the three functions just mentioned. It then goes on to ask the question how the banks of the charities were able to achieve their multiple objectives. Was their success as the centre of the Kingdom’s financial system determined by the charitable nature of their objectives, or, on the contrary, did they have to marginalise these objectives in order to succeed? To answer this question, it may be interesting to compare their experience with other economies where ‘alternative’ banks did not arise at an early stage, or were relegated to the margins of economic activity. The answer has implications for today’s banking systems and may help shed light on the issue as to whether ‘alternative’ banks are bound to occupy merely a niche or a central role in the modern financial system.

The Compagnia di San Paolo in Turin. Charity and credit
Claudio Bermond, University of Torino & Fausto Piola Caselli, University of Cassino

Claudio Bermond is Professor of Economic History at the University of Turin, Department of Economic and Social Sciences, where he convenes the History of Finance, the History of Business and Contemporary Economic History. He is the author of many monographic studies on the same subjects and is editor of twelve edited volumes, including La Banca, Annale 23 della Storia d’Italia (Einaudi, 2008).

Fausto Piola Caselli is Professor of Economic History at the University of Cassino. He has devoted his research to the history of national public debts, accounting and finances from the Middle Ages to modern times, with special reference to the Papal States’ yearly balance sheets. He is author of many papers and volumes, including a history of public finances in pre-industrial Europe.

The Compagnia di San Paolo was established in 1563 to carry out extensive charitable operations with the support of the Jesuit Order. In a few years, the Company opened a new pawnshop in Turin, which offered a very low interest rate, and then developed an intense alms-giving operation. Women in need could find protection in hostels according to their education, and marriages were often encouraged with grants and dowries. All undertakings were usually financed by donations and bequests, which increased over time due to positive results and the trust the Company soon earned within the wealthiest circles of Turin. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, an innovative accounting system with new managing techniques was introduced. At that time, liquidity was mainly invested in private and public loans.

In 1805, under the Napoleonic occupation, the Company set up a new pawnshop, according to the French model. It lent money on pledge at a market interest rate, and profits were usually capitalised. Later on, with the arrival of a new liberal economy in Piedmont, and subsequent to the 1848 Statute, the Company was nationalised. As a result, all charitable activities slowed down, whilst the banking section was enhanced and the pawnshop was reshaped as a savings bank. In 1932, the bank was made a public body under the corporate name of Istituto di San Paolo di Torino. The bank carried out all credit activities without disregarding charity and support to education. In the 1950s, San Paolo had become one of the key banks in Italy. Later on, according to the European and Italian directives, it was parcelled out into the non-profit foundation, Compagnia di San Paolo, and the profit bank, San Paolo. In 2006, San Paolo merged with Intesa of Milan, giving birth to Intesa San Paolo, the most important Italian credit group.

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Inclusive business models as unique selling points between past and future
Paul Thomes, RWTH Aachen University

Paul Thomes is Chair of Economic and Social History and History of Technology at Aachen University. He studied English, history, and economics at the Universities of Saarbrücken in Germany and Edinburgh in the UK. He received a doctoral degree in 1984, following his dissertation on the history of the Prussian savings banks, and a post-doctoral Habilitation degree in 1992, following his work on the economy of the early modern town. Having held positions as interim professor at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt-am-Main and at RWTH Aachen University, Paul Thomes became Professor of Economic and Social History and History of Technology at the latter in 1996.

German savings banks and later credit cooperatives became sustainably successful because they discovered that ordinary people could be their client, saver and borrower. They had created a unique selling point that triggered unexpected social and economic developments which last to this day.

The unique features of these institutions, the non-profit aspect of savings banks and participation/ownership features of co-ops vanished over the time when they tried to become ‘normal’ banks. As we know this was an extremely successful switch. Current market shares reflect the success of that assimilation process, which is closely connected to local presence. On the other hand, globalisation in combination with digitalisation are threatening both models, because they relativise that asset.

Therefore, we propose reverting to the origins of these institutions so that the social aspects of both models are emphasised once again in a thoroughly economised world. This would create a new version of an old and unique selling point without giving up expertise. The concept behind this proposal is ‘shared value’ (SV). It overcomes the gap between profit and non-profit, while ownership as a second social category could create customer loyalty even in a digitalised and highly competitive surrounding.

Contemporary history of impact financing
Maximilian Martin, Banque Lombard Odier

Maximilian Martin serves as Global Head of Philanthropy at Lombard Odier. He previously served as Founding Global Head and Managing Director of UBS Philanthropy Services, Senior Consultant with McKinsey & Company, an instructor at Harvard’s Economics Department, and Fellow at the Center for Public Leadership, Harvard Kennedy School. Maximilian created the first global philanthropic services and impact investing department for UBS in Europe. He has authored more than one hundred articles and position papers that have helped define the trajectory of market-based solutions and the impact revolution in finance, business and philanthropy. Furthermore, since 2004 he has been a visiting professor/lecturer at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland, where he teaches impact investing/social business/entrepreneurship.

(Social) impact investing refers to investments made with the intention to generate a measurable social and environmental impact alongside a financial return. The foundational term ‘impact investing’ was coined in 2007, and some estimates expect it to grow by USD 400 – 1,000 billion by 2020. The paper will explore the contemporary history of (social) impact investing, which is both an interpretive and a material phenomenon. After defining the term and describing its landscape, it will explore the field of forces that led to the emergence of impact investing and which co-determines its development, including different groups of investors such as philanthropic investors (foundations), angel and venture stage investors, private and institutional investors, financial services institutions, and government. Particular attention will be given to the fault lines that shape the development path of impact investing.

Credere, credit and money: how social is risk-sharing in Islamic finance?
Valentino Cattelan, The Käte Hamburger Center for Advanced Study in the Humanities “Law as Culture”

Valentino Cattelan is a legal scholar with a specific interest in comparative studies and a focus on Islamic law, economics and finance. Since April 2018 he is a Fellow at the Käte Hamburger Center for Advanced Study in the Humanities “Law as Culture” (Bonn, Germany). Since 2016 he has also been a Research Associate at the Saudi-Spanish Center for Islamic Economics and Finance (SCIEF), IE Business School (Madrid, Spain). Prior to this he held research and teaching positions at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, the University of Florence, the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle (Germany) and at the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London. He is the author of several journal articles and book contributions on Islamic classical fiqh, the law of Islamic finance, Islamic property rights and the epistemology of Islamic economics.

Credere (“to believe” in Latin) belongs to the essence of money, as well as of religion: believing in somebody means giving him personal/economic credit, which reflects the trust that he will return what has been lent; to believe in God corresponds to the faith in afterlife salvation. At the same time, as much as any story of credit is a story of risk (debtors may not be able to return money, and credit institutions are, in the end, risk-managers), any story of faith is a story of hope in redemption and grace, which is beyond human control.

Starting from the relationship between credere and credit that interconnects finance, economics, morality and religion as if they were the four corners of a kite, this paper aims at a critical understanding of the nature of risk-sharing in Islamic finance, both as a model of credit management that is alternative to interest-based capitalism and as a community-oriented way of managing risk in forms of mutuality/cooperation.

Given this background, the intrinsic social aim of Islamic finance (which is usually stated in relation to its ethical/religious background) will be critically discussed, and final considerations will be advanced on the interaction between money and religion (credere as “creed”) both in the Weberian outline of capitalism and in Islamic finance as evidence of a persistent practice of cultural differentiation between West and East.

Social Entrepreneurship: The Rothschilds as bankers and philanthropists (c.1850-1930)
Klaus Weber, European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder)

Klaus Weber holds a PhD in history from the University of Hamburg. Since 2011 he has been Professor of European Economic and Social History at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt/Oder, Germany. Prior to that, he held teaching and research positions at the Erfurt University and at the Institute for the History of German Jews, Hamburg. Between 2004-2009 he was Co-Director of the research project ‘Jewish Philanthropy and Social Development in Europe (1800-1940): The Case of the Rothschilds’ and, in this context, Research Fellow to The Rothschild Archive, London.

This paper will scrutinise the numerous charities which members of the Rothschild banking family created in the cities where they established  banking houses: Frankfurt (Main), Vienna, Naples, and more prominently, London and Paris. The Rothschild model of social entrepreneurship was noteworthy. In contrast with a number of banking houses (both Jewish and non-Jewish) and other corporations from the late 20th century onwards, these non-profit charitable institutions were never branches of any of the Rothschild banks.

They were not elements within a “philanthropic business line” of the bank. Typically, Rothschild family members would give considerable sums of their own private money (which of course derived from the bank) and establish independent institutions: schools, libraries, hospitals, homes for the old, the convalescent and for the incurables, social housing companies, youth clubs, etc. Comments from bank partners across the generations make clear that this pillar of their activities was of fundamental importance.

The importance of such institutions cannot be underestimated, because welfare institutions financed by public funds hardly existed until well into the 20th century. It was expected that members of the economic elite would commit themselves to such endeavours. Even more so in the case of those who sought to climb the social ladder, if they wanted to rid themselves of the air of nouveau riches. Investing profits in charities may be regarded as one way of transforming economic into social capital (reputation, respectability). At the same time, charities could be used as instruments to wield social and/or cultural influence over their clientele. It was therefore much more common and more attractive for benefactors to figure as individuals, than to channel the same money into a nonprofit branch of their own business.

Only after the First World War, when progressive taxation and tax on wealth were introduced or significantly increased all over Europe (together with the quota of public expenditure), did capacity and willingness for charitable giving stagnate or even decrease. The emergence of modern welfare weakened the impact of private charitable institutions, and the social capital of their founders.

Giovanni Ferri, LUMSA University of Rome

Giovanni Ferri holds a PhD in Economics from New York University. He is Professor of Economics and deputy Rector at LUMSA University. He co-founded and chairs the Center for Relationship Banking and Economics focusing on relational goods towards society’s wellbeing. Earlier he served at Bari University, Banca d’Italia, the World Bank as well the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Tokyo University, the ADB Institute, Princeton University and NBER. He has consulted for the EU Commission and Parliament, the Italian Treasury, the Italian Association of Popolari Bank, was a member of the Banking Stakeholder Group at the European Banking Authority and was a founding member of the Think Tank at the European Association of Cooperative Banks. He has been associate editor of: “Economic Notes”; “Rivista Bancaria-Minerva Bancaria”; and “The Journal of Entrepreneurial & Organizational Diversity”. He has led policy research projects in several countries around the world.

Maximilian Martin, Banque Lombard Odier

Maximilian Martin serves as Global Head of Philanthropy at Lombard Odier. He previously served as Founding Global Head and Managing Director of UBS Philanthropy Services, Senior Consultant with McKinsey & Company, an instructor at Harvard’s Economics Department, and Fellow at the Center for Public Leadership, Harvard Kennedy School. Maximilian created the first global philanthropic services and impact investing department for UBS in Europe. He has authored more than one hundred articles and position papers that have helped define the trajectory of market-based solutions and the impact revolution in finance, business and philanthropy. Furthermore, since 2004 he has been a visiting professor/lecturer at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland, where he teaches impact investing/social business/entrepreneurship.

Marco Ratti, Banca Prossima

British building societies 1970-2000: the changing conditions for a viable not-for-profit alternative in a financialized economy
Olivier Butzbach, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli

Olivier Butzbach is a Researcher in Political Economy at the Department of Political Science of the University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Italy. He holds a PhD in political science from the European University Institute in Florence. His doctoral research focused on the processes of organizational change in French and Italian savings banks between the 1970s and the early 2000s. Since his PhD, Olivier has worked on the transformation of not-for-profit European banks in the second half of the twentieth century – more recently expanding his research to the twenty-first century history of British building societies. Throughout his work, the analysis of organizational change in not-for-profit banking is informed by a multi-disciplinary perspective drawing on law, finance, and economics. Olivier is the author of dozens of publications, some of which have appeared in international journals such as Business History, Organization Studies, and Accounting, Economics and Law: A Convivium. He is co-editor, with Kurt von Mettenheim, of a volume on ‘alternative banks’ (Alternative banks and financial crisis (Routledge, 2014). Olivier has been a Visiting scholar at King’s College London, Humboldt University and the Sao Paulo School of Public Administration.

Building societies today are an important yet peripheral part of the British financial system: important, because of their sizeable shares of the mortgage lending market; peripheral, given their average small size (apart from Nationwide, the industry leader) and assets as compared to overall assets of the British banking system. One may assume that in a liberal market economy such as the United Kingdom, not-for-profit financial institutions such as building societies could not expect to occupy a centre position in the country’s financial system anyway. Yet that was not always the case; building societies, which are one of the oldest economic organisations in Great Britain, have for a large part of the twentieth century held dominant positions in the country’s mortgage market. Thus, they represent an interesting case study concerning the changing sustainability of not-for-profit alternatives in a for-profit market environment. The proposed paper investigates the extent to which British building societies, from 1945 to 1986, represented a sustainable alternative model to for-profit finance; and how such an alternative was dramatically scaled down during the 1990s.

In particular, the paper will build on archival data to: (i) analyze the historical relations between building societies’ not-for-profit mission, their organizational form and the regulatory regime they were exposed to during the second half of the twentieth century; (ii) identify the conditions under which such relations were radically altered during the 1980s; (iii) identify the factors that led to the persistence of a reduced building societies sector, at the periphery of the British financial system, by the end of the twentieth century. It is suggested that the latter yields important lessons for rethinking the role and place of not-for-profit financial institutions today.

The origins of the (cooperative) species: Raiffeisen banking in the Netherlands, 1898-1909
Chris Colvin, Queen’s University Belfast

Chris Colvin is an economic historian with research interests in banking crises, corporate governance, cultural economics, and demographic change. His research mostly addresses issues in the business and financial history of the Netherlands in the early twentieth century, and the economic and social history of Ireland in the nineteenth century. Chris has been a Lecturer in Economics at Queen’s Management School, Queen’s University Belfast, since 2012. There he teaches economic history and managerial economics. Chris is also a Research Associate at the university’s Centre for Economic History, and an Associate Fellow at its Institute of Irish Studies. Before joining Queen’s, Chris was a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence. He completed a PhD at the London School of Economics in 2011, and was an undergraduate student at the University of Bristol. Alongside Nathan Marcus, Chris edits “eabh Papers”, the eabh working paper series.

Cooperatively-owned Raiffeisen banks first emerged in the Netherlands in the late 1890s and spread rapidly across the country. Using a new dataset, we investigate the determinants of their market entry and early performance. We find that the cooperative organisational form, when allied to a change in the structure of Dutch agriculture and the socioreligious pillarisation of Dutch society, was an important factor explaining their entry into rural financial markets. However, religion played a much more limited role in their subsequent performance. We argue that while Catholic clergy may have provided a necessary impetus for the emergence of Raiffeisen banks, the economic advantages associated with the cooperative organisational form ensured the subsequent survival and success of these banks.

Co-authors:
Stuart Henderson (Dublin Institute of Technology)
John Turner (Queen’s University Belfast)

The evolution of the social and cultural investments of the Spanish savings banks, 1926-1990: the ‘social and cultural work’
Ángel Pascual Martínez Soto & Susana Martínez-Rodríguez, University of Murcia

Ángel Pascual Martínez Soto is Professor of the History and Economic Institutions Department of the Department of Applied Economics of the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Murcia (Spain). He is a member of the Spanish Society of Economic History and the Society of Agrarian History (member of the board 2005-2010). He is the principal investigator of the Research Group of Economic History of the University of Murcia. Among its lines of research, it is worth mentioning the Spanish financial system and the colonial financial system of Spain (Cuba and Puerto Rico). He has also worked on the history of microfinance institutions dedicated to agriculture and informal credit markets. He has authored numerous works on the savings banks in Spain and in Spain’s former colonial territories (Cuba and Puerto Rico, amongst others), which have been published in Spain and Mexico. Numerous articles in relation to microfinance institutions have appeared in magazines such as Agrarian History, European Journal of Economic History and Continuity and Change.

Susana Martínez-Rodríguez is Associate Professor of Economic History at the University of Murcia (Spain). Her research interests are economic history, and law and economics. Her main research agenda explores the role that legal institutions played in the development of Spain in the 19th and 20th centuries. She has published several papers on the history of credit cooperatives and microfinance in Spain. She has been Principal Investigator of two competitive projects on multi-owner enterprises funded by the Regional Agency of Science of Murcia (2010-2015) and the Spanish Ministry of Economy (2013-2017). Her most recent publications are available at: http://susanamartinezrodriguez.es/research/.

During the nineteenth century the Spanish Savings Banks were linked to the Montes de Piedad and played a fundamental role in avoiding the financial exclusion of the urban popular classes duringthe first industrialization. During this time the State considered them as charitable institutions and kept them under its control.

With the improvement of living standards (real wage improvements) experienced in the country during the first third of the twentieth century, there was a significant growth of retail savings that was capitalised by these entities. The State changed its point of view and began to regulate them more carefully after 1926. The change of perspective meant that they came to be considered as social institutions in the service of public policies, both financial and social.

For this reason, they were forced to invest a significant part of their deposits and profits in public debt and government social policies. The successive legislation that regulated the savings banks (1929, 1933, 1947, 1964, 1975, 1979 and 1985) increased this social function. Thus, the percentage of the benefits obtained by these entities (approximately 30%) had to be allocated to investments in social work, educational interventions and cultural events.

The changes in the organisation of the Savings Banks made them special financial institutions, closely related to the public policies of the welfare state and with a strong territorial belonging. This orientation was diverted between 1997 and 2007, until most of the entities failed during the 2008 global financial crisis. Since then they have disappeared as savings banks and their social function has been left in the hands of foundations with a committed future.

In this paper we will examine the so-called ‘social and cultural work’ (OBS) of Savings Banks. To this end, we will analyse: the stages of its evolution; the legal and regulatory aspects of this function; the quantification and sectorization of investments in OBS; the social impact in the country; and other considerations that characterized Spanish savings banks as “Special Financial Institutions” until their disappearance in 2008.

Social aspects of the insurance history of mutual assistance in Italy
Gian Savino Pene Vidari & Enrico Genta Ternavasio, Association ‘Amici del Museo di Reale Mutua’

Gian Savino Pene Vidari is Professor Emeritus of the University of Torino, member of the board of the Societè d’histoire du droit, member of the Board of Directors of “Reale Mutua” and President of the Association “Amici del Museo di Reale Mutua”. Prior to that, he was Professor of the History of Law at the University of Urbino (1975-76) and Torino (1976-2010). Furthermore, he is a former Dean of the Faculty of Law at the same university and has been a member and advisor of the Academic Senate of Torino for over 20 years. He was Professeur invité at the Universities of Nice Sophia Antipolis, Paris Descartes and Paris Sorbonne, and President of the Società italiana di storia del diritto. Currently, he is president of the Deputazione subalpina di storia patria, and Director of the “Rivista di storia del diritto italiano”.

Enrico Genta Ternavasio is Professor of the History of Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Torino, member of the Board of Directors of the Association “Amici del Museo di Reale Mutua” and Adjunct Professor at the University LUISS of Rome (since 2006). Furthermore, he is Professeur invité at the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis and Paris Descartes, member of the Deputazione Subalpina di Storia Patria and of the Societé d’histoire du droit. He is the former head of the national research units and responsible for the international relationships of the University of Turin. Currently, he is Vice Director of the “Rivista di storia del diritto italiano”.

The development of the insurance system took place in the medieval commercial sphere: it mostly concerned sea travel and usually involved a group of merchants who assumed the risk with an agreement (insurance policy) signed in front of a legal clerk. This approach, which divided risk amongst members of the community, even if very different from the present-day insurance system, must not be overlooked.

In the modern age, the development of insurance companies has changed the system of assurance. The merchant’s activities were overwhelmed by the developments of the financial and entrepreneurial sphere and the insurance system expanded its business to many other fields. Due to the fact that many fires had taken place including the famous fire of London in 1666, an emerging insurance field was developed to insure buildings against the risk of fire. Another type of insurance was developing known as the mutual aid insurance; according to this system, every partner was engaged in covering the losses of the others, in particular in case of fire or in the agricultural field.

The first insurance company in the Kingdom of Savoy followed this approach. On the 31st of December in 1828 the “Società Reale d’assicurazione generale e mutua contro gl’incendj” was established by the King, Carlo Felice, who also became the first policyholder of the company.

In April 1840, a fire destroyed the little city of Sallanches, in Savoy. The damages to the insured properties were refunded by Reale Mutua, which raised a subscription that made possible an almost complete restoration of the city. It was the first case in which social support was lent to the whole community rather than merely in favour of its partners. Many other actions of social responsibility followed throughout the years. This is because the mutual approach to insurance has been interpreted by Reale Mutua in a broad way. In the past, especially during and after the World Wars, as well as recently. For example, after the natural disasters in Italy caused by floods or earthquakes.

The history of such an important company, the only mutual insurance in Italy that has gained a national and international reputation, cannot be neglected. Recently, the historical archive of the company has been declared of particular historical interest by the Archive Superintendence for Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta. A historical museum containing the most important documents has also been created to promote and share the corporate cultural heritage of the company. It has attracted many visitors and it offers a special project dedicated to schools, which explain the insurance culture and the themes of risk, protection and prevention.