Community and territory

During 2025, Sellalab, the Sella Group’s impact-driven Open Innovation platform, organized 37 free events at both national and local level, most of which were held at its own locations across the territory. It also participated as a speaker in 44 external events throughout Italy, engaging over 17,000 people. In Biella, at the Lanificio Maurizio Sella, the Open Coworking space is also available: a dynamic and creative environment open to the local community, where people can work, develop new networking opportunities and foster business initiatives. Over the course of 2025, it recorded more than 1,037 unique visitors.

From 2 to 4 October 2025, “Nel Mondo a Venire”, Sellalab’s festival dedicated to impact-driven innovation, took place at Lanificio Maurizio Sella. The event brought together over 1,300 students, young people, professionals and entrepreneurs in person, all united by the desire to build a more aware and sustainable future. “Nel Mondo a Venire” kicked off with an opening event that gathered more than 500 high school students from the Biella area at the Città Studi Auditorium, featuring contributions from experts in technology and impact. The event also hosted a roundtable with four entrepreneurs who discussed digital transformation, artificial intelligence and leadership.

The following day, the event continued with a focus on companies, through workshops on digital strategies, artificial intelligence and leadership, followed by a matchmaking session involving 16 companies and 16 startups from the Sellalab ecosystem, resulting in 256 introductory meetings within just a few hours.

The highlight of the festival took place on Saturday at Lanificio Maurizio Sella, where more than 800 participants attended a full day of initiatives and events focused on responsible innovation and entrepreneurship.

An international open innovation program promoted by MagnoLab, developed by dpixel, with Sellalab as Ecosystem Partner, aimed at startups, scaleups and SMEs for the design and development of cutting-edge solutions in the textile sector. The initiative involved 70 companies from Italy and abroad and aims to identify practical and effective solutions to improve, for example, energy management, the digitalization of production processes, consumption reduction, the use of recyclable and biodegradable materials, as well as the application of Artificial Intelligence to optimize the supply chain. At the beginning of 2026, the selected ideas were presented at the “Demo Day ‘Innovate Together’”.

An impact advisory program for companies that enhances and promotes open innovation projects with a positive impact. In 2025, the program recorded 36 use cases, of which 5 were selected as best practices and showcased through a national closing event held at the Sella Open Innovation Center in Turin.

In 2025, the program Fin 4 Teen, organized by Sellalab, trained 290 students aged between 12 and 19 across five cities (Biella, Turin, Rome, Salerno and Lecce) through a structured pathway that delivered 128 hours of training locally, achieving a 22.4% improvement in participants’ skills as assessed at the end of the program. Furthermore, from 23 to 27 June, Fin 4 Teen Camp 2025 was held in Biella, a five-day campus attended by 50 teenagers aged 14 to 18. The program was designed to provide students with support, training and resources, helping them turn their innovative ideas into successful entrepreneurial ventures. During the week, participants learned the fundamentals of financial education to manage their savings effectively and explored the key features of impact-driven entrepreneurship.

During 2025, Banca Sella developed the project “Voglio una Borsa Rosa” with the aim of promoting female talent, facilitating women’s access to new opportunities, and fostering an open dialogue between the banking sector and women. The initiative included the development and sharing of digital guides dedicated to financial education, the production of short educational video clips created by the Bank’s employees, the awarding of two scholarships for the MIB Master’s program at LIUC University aimed at young women, as well as a national roadshow held across six Italian cities. To complete the project, a three-episode podcast dedicated to female entrepreneurship was produced in collaboration with RAME, and internal corporate volunteering activities were promoted in support of the associations Young Women Network and Sistech.

Banca Sella has been actively collaborating for several years with Feduf – the Foundation for Financial Education and Savings – engaging secondary school students in financial education initiatives. In 2025, it reached more than 1,400 students from 26 secondary schools, from Turin to Lecce, including Pavia, Milan and Foggia.

The portal was launched in 2024 with the aim of spreading financial literacy and supporting readers in their journey toward greater awareness and knowledge on topics such as personal and family finance, as well as financial instruments to make the most of their savings. In addition, the portal features content designed to explore business trends, market scenarios and sector insights, always maintaining a strong focus on sustainability and innovation, with the goal of inspiring change and generating a positive impact. In 2025, 67 editorial pieces were published on the portal, which was visited by more than 155,000 users across over 182,000 sessions.

During 2025, the Sella Treasury & Financial Markets business line played a particularly active role in delivering educational initiatives aimed at both high school and university students. The fifth edition of the #YoungQuantTalentsGrowUp project continued, targeting outstanding students in quantitative and scientific subjects enrolled in the fourth year of two scientific high schools in the Biella area, with the objective of offering a dedicated orientation and training pathway focused on selected quantitative applications in finance. In the academic field, thematic seminars on machine learning and algorithmic trading were organized, involving institutions such as the Polytechnic University of Turin, the Collegio Carlo Alberto in Turin, the University of Turin, and the University of Eastern Piedmont. In addition, in summer 2025, a summer internship program was launched, with the participation of a high-performing university student.

The “Student-Athlete Award”, now in its 21st edition, is a Group initiative that each year recognizes young people who, through dedication and perseverance, successfully balance academic studies and sports, achieving excellence in both areas. In particular, the initiative is aimed at students from lower and upper secondary schools in the province of Biella. A total of 79 students were awarded in the 2025 edition, with the most deserving candidates selected by the school principals of the participating institutions. Since 2005, more than 1,000 students have been recognized through this initiative.

The Group established six scholarships to support the children of Team Sella employees in their university and academic careers, in memory of Donato Valz Gen, whose constant commitment contributed to the Group’s growth. Specifically, four scholarships were awarded to students already enrolled in university programs, while the remaining two were dedicated to recent high school graduates embarking on a university path in the 2025/2026 academic year.

More than 700 colleagues from the Group, together with their families, took part once again this year in the Sella Volunteer Day, a day organized by the Group and dedicated to the environment, aimed at generating a positive impact on local communities and territories. Together with Legambiente volunteers, employees contributed to cleaning and restoring urban areas and parks in eight cities: Aosta, Bari, Biella, Naples, Padua, Palermo, Rome and Turin. In Palermo, due to adverse weather conditions, a training workshop on the circular economy was held instead. This initiative is part of the “Puliamo il Mondo” project, the largest environmental volunteering campaign in the world, designed to make cities cleaner, more beautiful and more liveable. The “corporate volunteering ID card”, a personalized recognition for companies involved in local regeneration activities, certified that the Group collected a total of 262 kilograms of waste across all cities during the day.Colleagues from Centrico Selir in Romania also took part in a clean-up initiative along a section of the Danube riverbanks.

Between May and June 2025, coinciding with World Blood Donor Day, the Group, in collaboration with AVIS, organized three events in three different cities — Milan, Rome and Turin — dedicated to employees and collaborators. These events provided the opportunity to make a first donation, a recurring donation, or to undergo eligibility screening during working hours. A total of 66 colleagues took part in the initiative.

The Group contributed a donation of €14,000 to the initiatives of La Rete, a non-profit organization (ONLUS) operating within the Caritas network in Biella, which provides food and shelter to people in need. The organization involves more than 70 volunteers who, working in daily shifts, distribute meals every day for a total of approximately 30,000 lunches per year.

For many years, the Group has organized an internal charity lottery, offering as prizes the gifts received by employees from clients and suppliers which, in accordance with the Code of Ethics, cannot be retained by them. In 2025, thanks to ticket sales across the entire Team Sella, the Group donated the funds raised, in equal parts, to the “Eureka School” in India and the Cottolengo of Biella.

In 2025, the Sella Group donated 411 refurbished company computers to the Centro Territoriale per il Volontariato of Biella and Vercelli, with the aim of providing concrete support to third-sector organizations, schools and local citizens by making increasingly essential technological tools available for their daily activities. For the distribution of the computers, the Centro Territoriale per il Volontariato collaborates with Semi di Serra APS, the Italian Red Cross – Ivrea Committee ODV, and BiLUG ODV, in order to leverage their in-depth knowledge of the local social landscape. This initiative stems from the Sella Group’s commitment to generating a positive impact on the communities and territories in which it operates, combining a focus on digital inclusion with environmental sustainability.

For several years, the Group has created an internal digital community to give space and visibility to the volunteer initiatives carried out by employees in their free time. Each employee can share initiatives organized by local organizations they collaborate with, actively engaging the entire community. Within this context, initiatives such as “Sella Cuore in support of Ukrainian refugees” have emerged—a solidarity mission carried out in 2022 by colleagues who, traveling in two vans, collected essential goods from across the Group and delivered them to family homes managed by the Quadrifoglio Project in Romania, near the Ukrainian border.

On the occasion of the International Volunteer Day (5 December), the Sella Group organized, for the second consecutive year, the initiative “Donate Your Vote”, with the aim of actively supporting the social organizations in which colleagues are personally involved and which are part of the Sella Cuore community.

Employees shared on the Group intranet a project from the organization where they carry out their volunteer activities, and all colleagues across the Group were invited to vote and select three initiatives to support.

In 2025, the selected projects were:

• an emergency stretcher for the “L’Orsa Maggiore” Hospice of LILT Biella, to support the purchase of this essential equipment, which assists not only patients but also their families who remain by their loved ones’ side;
• a life-saving transport service promoted by the Associazione Talassemici Piemonte, aimed at providing mobility support to treatment centers for patients with thalassemia who must regularly undergo life-saving transfusion therapies;
• support for the Associazione Gattopoli, for the purchase of quality food, medicines, and to cover necessary veterinary care, such as microchipping, sterilizations and vaccinations.

The Art Direction of Banca Patrimoni Sella & C., established in 2017 as an expression of the Sella Group’s strong commitment to the protection and enhancement of artistic and cultural heritage, carries out a dedicated effort to promote and disseminate culture through the universal language of art.

This open dialogue fosters connections between public and private entities, both nationally and internationally, as well as between spaces and venues—including unconventional ones—and across generations. It is an activity designed for and dedicated to people, aimed at making cultural heritage accessible and available.

In its role as a promoter of culture, the Art Direction is also actively involved—through its wide range of Art Advisory services—in wealth management projects that include an artistic component and are focused on the conservation, protection and enhancement of artworks.

These initiatives are developed in collaboration, at both national and international level, with museums, academies, foundations, archives and private collectors, generating a network of virtuous relationships capable of delivering projects for the territories in which the Bank operates and grows. Alongside the renewal of long-standing partnerships in the Piedmont area—such as those with the Superintendency, the Polytechnic University, the University of Turin, the Conservation and Restoration Centre of Venaria Reale, and the Civic Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art—in 2025 new dialogues were established with the Superintendencies of Milan and Naples, as well as with academic institutions such as the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan and the National Academy of the Lincei in Rome, and with the Louvre Museum in Paris.

As a Christmas gift for Members, the Group donated membership to FAI - Fondo per l'Ambiente Italiano, in whose mission of protecting and enhancing Italy's historical, artistic and landscape heritage the Sella group recognizes itself.

During 2025, the Historical Office of the Sella Group continued its mission of safeguarding, managing and enhancing the company’s cultural heritage, which represents the enduring core of its activities. The four main areas of the Group Historical Archive—documents, library, collections and images—were managed through ongoing activities including selection, inventorying and cataloguing of materials, bibliographic surveys, the curation of exhibition materials, and the collection of testimonies, in line with the archival standards adopted by the Group. Alongside this structural work, the Historical Office further strengthened its contribution to the enhancement of corporate heritage and its integration into the Group’s identity, communication and reputation-building processes. The year was also marked by a rich program of public initiatives, involving schools, universities and the wider community, including events dedicated to industrial tourism and the FAI Autumn Days.

During 2025, the Group continued its activities in support of the humanitarian emergency in Ukraine through the Rosa Pristina Foundation, with a donation of €17,000 for the purchase of humanitarian aid and to support doctors working for the Ukrainian population. Since the beginning of the emergency, the Group has donated a total of €312,000 to the Rosa Pristina Foundation in support of the Ukrainian population.

Banca Sella's Sustainability team in collaboration with Ca' Sella organized an experimental course for the Group's employees and collaborators to approach Italian Sign Language (LIS). The objective of the course was to raise awareness among the participants on issues concerning the deaf community in our area and provide a basic set of sign language knowledge to properly approach communication with deaf people. The illustrated techniques learned are also useful for communication with elderly people.

In collaboration with the Piedmont-based company Arti Grafiche Parini, in 2024 Banca Sella became the first banking institution in Italy and Europe to adopt the TQ Braille system, an innovative device designed to improve the accessibility of information for blind and visually impaired people. This system, also used in 2025, integrates a QR code into selected customer-facing printed materials, enabling immediate access to a range of content on products, services and initiatives.

On this occasion, with the support of the Sella Group, through Sella SGR and Banca Patrimoni Sella & C., the “Labyrinth of Violence” was renewed—an experiential pathway that evokes the image of a spiral from which it is difficult to escape. This project against gender-based violence was promoted by the associations SVS Donna Aiuta Donna, Caritas Ambrosiana, Farsi Prossimo Onlus and SVSeD of the Policlinico of Milan, based on an idea by students from the European Institute of Design, and was set up in the courtyard of Palazzo Marino in Milan.Sella SGR and Banca Patrimoni Sella & C. supported the restyling of the Labyrinth, curated by the Milan-based creative studio Bonsaininja, helping to make the experience more accessible and effective in its communication.

On the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the Group allocated the entire amount traditionally dedicated to the annual donations related to 8 March to fund a research project in collaboration with the Catholic University of Milan. The research focused on those most affected by economic violence, how it manifests, its impact on victims, and the associated risk and protective factors. Sella Leasing also organized the webinar “They Are Not Just Words,” focusing on verbal violence against women. The event was held in collaboration with the associations Non Sei Sola, Paviol APS and Associazione Underground, and provided an opportunity for discussion aimed at raising awareness and equipping participants with practical tools to prevent and address violence.

Fabrick employees have been engaged for years in food collection initiatives supporting local communities. In 2025, they collaborated in Milan and Biella with Pane Quotidiano by placing collection boxes in office break areas, to be filled over a period of 10–15 days with non-perishable food items, which were then delivered to the association. In Rome, starting in 2025, the same initiative was launched in partnership with Banco Alimentare. Alongside the collection activities, employees are also given the opportunity to take part in food distribution: with Pane Quotidiano in Milan, with Caritas in Biella, and with Banco Alimentare in Rome. Activities include meal preparation in soup kitchens, table service, and, in the capital, evening distribution of meals to homeless individuals at Termini station.This commitment strengthens ties with local communities and promotes a corporate culture based on solidarity and active participation.

Employees from Sella Investment Banking and Sella Venture Partners took part in a volunteering initiative at Caritas Ambrosiana in Milan, contributing to the preparation of meals, biscuits, taralli and jams for the evening soup kitchen, experiencing first-hand the commitment required to provide this essential service to people in need on a daily basis. The team also chose to support 100 families through a donation of essential goods.The Refettorio Ambrosiano goes beyond managing a soup kitchen: it recovers surplus food, promotes cultural events, organizes activities for young people, and carries out projects aimed at fostering autonomy among individuals in vulnerable situations.

Sella SGR's investment fund, established in 2020 with the aim of combining finance and scientific research, has supported the Umberto Veronesi Foundation in 2025 through an annual contribution of 0.3 percent of total assets.

The Group contributed with a donation of 29.000 euros to the “Amici dell'Ospedale di Biella” Association for the new hybrid operating room at the Ospedale degli Infermi. This project aims to further upgrade the city hospital's operating block. The operating room concentrates multiple high-tech components that enable different surgical techniques and the collaboration of multiple specialists at the same time. In addition, donated funds have also been earmarked to finance the maintenance within the hospital of a surgical robot remotely controlled by a surgeon and capable of performing complex abdominal surgeries.

Some employees from Centrico and Nivola took part in Cancer Survivors Day, an initiative promoted by LILT, participating in the Biella event with a yoga session designed as a moment of sharing and wellbeing to celebrate life after illness.The aim of the event was to raise awareness about the importance of cancer prevention and to support fundraising efforts for LILT Biella.In addition, the same colleagues from Centrico and Nivola participated in both the Biella and Turin editions of the “Pigiama Run”, also promoted by LILT, running or walking in their pajamas to support children affected by cancer.The initiative aimed to raise funds for LILT’s pediatric projects and to promote a culture of prevention and solidarity within local communities.

In 2024, in agreement with trade unions, the Group’s smart working agreement was extended until 30 April 2027 during 2026. Introduced on an experimental basis in July 2022, the agreement is among the most innovative in the banking sector and allows for up to an average of 13 smart working days per month on an annual basis, with a possible extension up to 15 days in specific cases.

In 2025, the possibility was reconfirmed for Group colleagues to take advantage of the time bank, a fund supported by the voluntary donation of vacation time by colleagues that can be drawn on by other colleagues who are in need and no longer have vacation time available. In addition, employees are entitled to 15 hours of paid leave to carry out volunteer activities in support of organizations and associations

In 2025, the Employee Assistance Program was replaced and enhanced through a partnership that, in addition to the psychotherapy services already available for several years, introduced nutritional counseling and coaching services. The aim is to promote the wellbeing of all Group employees by offering free access to four sessions, which can be chosen from among the three services, with the option to use them personally or transfer them to a family member. After the four sessions, if the employee decides to continue, they may do so at a rate lower than the market price. Sessions can be booked independently by employees through a dedicated platform and are conducted via video calls, ensuring full anonymity.

The promotion of a more sustainable lifestyle has been one of the key focus areas of employee engagement and awareness initiatives, with the aim of highlighting the importance of increasingly aligning everyday behaviors with the environmental context in which we live.
In 2025, awareness-raising efforts on sustainable mobility continued through targeted communications, two contests designed to encourage the use of the carpooling app among all employees, and a range of initiatives to promote cycling (including new agreements for bike purchases, safe riding courses and the installation of new bike racks).
In addition, the Group took part in Green Food Week, aimed at raising awareness of sustainable food choices, and in “M’Illumino di Meno”, the National Day for Energy Saving and Sustainable Lifestyles, with ad hoc initiatives developed to coincide with these national awareness events.
Targeted communications to employees also continued in connection with various World Days (such as World Water Day, Global Recycling Day, etc.), which represent opportunities to share thematic content and provide colleagues with practical tips to apply in their daily lives.