Italy: Welcome to Initaly

In 2005 BPU, a network of banks including Banca Popolare di Bergamo-Credito Varesino and Banca Popolare Commercio e Industria, has launched Initaly, a bank service for immigrants including bank account, training courses and offering services not only on bank accounts but also on mortgages, insurance policies, credit cards and guarantees to obtain a visa.
This service is the answer to an actual need: in fact 1.2 million regular foreign citizens coming from developing countries and having a bank account live in Italy, and more than 60% of the foreign clients has been obtained in the last five years.
With Initaly the attention has been drawn on the relation bank-client through a programme of cross-cultural communication of the bank?s employees. A guide on bank procedures has been published for them and they have attended a training course to learn how to build a good relationship with immigrants.
www.bpubanca.it