Comunità e territorio 2024

During 2024, Sellalab, the Sella Group's impactful Open Innovation platform, created 50 free events of national and local scope, most of which were organized in its own local coworking, and participated as a speaker in 43 external events throughout Italy, involving over 7.500 people. In Biella, at the Lanificio Maurizio Sella, there is also the Open Coworking, a dynamic and creative space available to the area in which to work and develop new networking and business opportunities which, during 2024, recorded more than 1.800 unique accesses.

On Saturday, October 5, 2024, the fifth edition of “BiDigital,” the big festival of innovation, digital and impact organized by Sellalab, in collaboration with BTrees, a digital communication agency, was held at the Lanificio Maurizio Sella in Biella. The 2024 event, titled “In the World to Come,” featured in attendance more than 1.100 entrepreneurs, professionals, startuppers and innovation enthusiasts, the presence of more than 50 speakers and the delivery of 40 hours of content delving into topics such as sustainable transformation, artificial intelligence applications, programming and new forms of communication. The day also featured workshops, hackathons, digital ecology labs, testing of drones and robotic arms applied to aeronautics, trials of augmented and virtual reality visors and payment experiences through iris scanning. The Lanificio also featured an Impact Courtyard, a veritable court animated by startups and innovative SMEs that showed the public their impactful solutions dedicated to businesses in the territory and the country. 

The first edition of “Fin 4 Teen,” a free financial education and impact entrepreneurship course involving 30 young people aged 12 to 19, was held at Sellalab Lecce. The project was promoted by Sellalab in collaboration with WeDo Academy. The lessons, which lasted a total of 30 hours, were conducted by expert mentors in finance and business through an interactive approach and through the use of gamification. During the course, the students were able to learn financial concepts in a practical and inspiring way and were able to participate in inspirational meetings with entrepreneurs and professionals to tell through concrete cases how to transform ideas into business realities.

Banca Sella in collaboration with Feduf - Foundation for Financial and Savings Education - in 2024 organized a series of educational meetings covering topics such as personal finance, savings, investments, circular economy, sustainable finance, digital payments and online security:

• students (more than 500) from secondary schools participated in online sessions and live meetings, including the 2024 Payments Fair, an opportunity for direct discussion on economic and financial issues;
• the bank also supported the PCTO project “What a business, kids!” aimed at more than 100 students from Biella, helping them develop entrepreneurial skills and enhance the local area;
• Biella Vandorno elementary school students participated in playful-educational activities, with readings and interactive games to introduce basic concepts of economics and finance.

The portal was created with the aim of spreading culture on financial issues and supporting readers in their journey of growth and awareness on topics such as personal and family finance and financial tools to make the most of savings. In addition, useful content is shared on the portal to explore business trends, scenarios, and industry insights with an ever-present focus on Sustainability and Innovation to inspire change and generate positive impact. Since its launch in July 2024 to the end of December, 51 editorial contents have been published on the portal, which have been read by 88.800 users. The portal was visited by more than 40.300 users, and those reached on social media by this content were more than 7 million.

During 2024, the Sella Treasury & Financial Markets business line played a particularly active role in the area of educational paths aimed at both high school students and university students. In fact, the #YoungQuantTalentsGrowUp project continued with its fourth edition, aimed at brilliant students of quantitative and scientific subjects enrolled in the 4th year of two scientific high schools in the Biella area, with the objective of proposing a path of orientation and specific training on some quantitative applications to finance. In the academic field, thematic seminars have been held in the areas of machine learning and algorithmic trading involving entities such as the Polytechnic University of Turin, the Collegio Carlo Alberto of Turin, the University of Turin and the University of Eastern Piedmont. In addition, in summer 2024, two summer internships were organized in which two brilliant university students participated.

The “Student Athlete Award” reaches the milestone of its twentieth edition with particular satisfaction for the Group which, in 2005, launched this initiative aimed at students of secondary schools of I and II grade in the province of Biella with the aim of rewarding students who, in addition to achieving excellent academic results, develop the ability to experience sport and competition in a correct manner, establishing good relationships with their classmates both in class and in sports activities. The winners of the 2024 edition were 73 students from 22 different schools. The most deserving students were indicated by the head teachers of the schools involved. The award ceremony took place at the Lanificio Maurizio Sella and was attended by the Deputy General Manager of Banca Sella Holding, representatives of the Municipality, the Province, CONI, the Regional School Office and Panathlon.

More than 700 Group colleagues, together with their families, participated again this year in Sella Volunteer Day, a day organized by the Group dedicated to the environment in order to generate a positive impact on the territories and local communities. Together with Legambiente volunteers, they cleaned up urban areas, beaches and parks in nine cities: Biella, Genoa, Lecce, Milan, Modena, Naples, Palermo, Rome and Turin. This initiative is part of the “Clean Up the World” project, the world's largest environmental volunteer campaign designed to make cities cleaner, more beautiful and livable. The corporate volunteering ID card, a personalized recognition for companies involved in land redevelopment activities, certified 522 kilos of waste collected in total in all cities during the day.

In June 2024, the month of the World Blood Donation Day, the Group, in collaboration with AVIS, organized in 4 different cities - Biella, Milan, Rome and Turin - 4 appointments, dedicated to employees and collaborators, to make their first donation, a recurring donation or a suitability examination during working hours. A total of 110 colleagues joined the initiative.

The Group contributed a donation of 15.000 euros to the initiatives of the nonprofit La Rete, which, within the circuit of Caritas of Biella, provides food and shelter to people in need. This reality involves more than 70 volunteers who, divided into daily teams, distribute meals every day for a total of about 30.000 lunches per year.

The Group has for many years organized an internal charity lottery by raffling off gifts received by colleagues from Customers and suppliers and which, as stipulated in the Code of Ethics, cannot be retained. In 2024, thanks to the sale of tickets to the entire Sella Team, the Group donated the funds raised, in equal parts, to the “Eureka School” in India and to Cottolengo in Biella. 

The Group donated 11.000 vinyl gloves and 4.900 surgical masks to Domus Laetitiae, a Social Solidarity Cooperative that mainly deal with people with intellectual-relational/mental disabilities, 5.000 nitrile gloves and 2.900 FFP2 masks to the Red Cross of Cossato, 5.000 nitrile gloves and 2.925 FFP2 masks to the Red Cross of Biella and 14950 surgical masks to the New Hospital of the Infirm in Biella. 

For some years now, the Group has created an internal digital community to give space and voice to the volunteer initiatives attended by colleagues in their spare time. Each colleague can share the initiatives organized by the local realities with which they collaborate, proactively involving the whole community. In this context, initiatives such as the “Sella Cuore expedition in aid of Ukrainian refugees,” a solidarity trip made in 2022 by colleagues who, on board two vans, collected from the whole Group and delivered basic necessities to some family homes managed by the Quadrifoglio Project in Romania on the border with Ukraine.

On the occasion of World Volunteer Day (December 5), the Sella Group organized for the second year in a row the “Donate Your Vote” initiative in order to actively support social realities in which colleagues are actively engaged and that are part of the Sella Cuore community. Colleagues share on the Group intranet about a project of the reality in which they are volunteers, and all colleagues of the Group were asked to choose through a vote three realities to support. In 2024 the projects chosen were: 

• “InclusiOne” by Cooperativa Sociale Sportivamente of Biella, a water motor activity course for children with and without intellectual disabilities in order to promote positive relational models within the class group;
• “Friendly Beehive” by LILT Biella, an ongoing support project for all families living in the Province of Biella with children and young people with pediatric cancers being treated at any Italian Pediatric Oncology Center;
• the project of ASD Maratonabili of Turin, which allows special athletes to participate in running races by means of a wheelchair adapted to the type of activity, which is pushed during the race by the Association's runners.

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 Piedmont-based company Arti Grafiche Parini, Banca Sella is the first credit 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 integrates a QR Code into some of the paper materials aimed at Customers, allowing immediate access to a range of content on products, services and initiatives.

Banca Sella, Sella Personal Credit and Sella Leasing have renewed their support for the Federation of Deaf Sports Italy to support the participation of the men's and women's national futsal teams in the Winter Paralympics held in Erzurum, Turkey in March 2024.

On the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the Group expressed its participation by supporting the Autonomy Fund of the D.i.Re Association, Women in the Network against Violence, the national anti-violence network that helps thousands of women in Italy every day to live a life free from abuse, offering shelter and care and Telefono Rosa, an Italian association that has been working alongside women and minors since 1988 and helping them to bring to light the violence that is submerged within the domestic walls. The 24-hour helpline of the Pink Telephone is answered by volunteers offering women the opportunity to receive free listening, shelter, safety and protection.

dPixel - a venture business in the Fabrick ecosystem - in order to facilitate and stimulate the growth of female entrepreneurship has launched the DonNa project to support aspiring female entrepreneurs to create their own businesses through a comprehensive training, incubation and project acceleration path.

Banca Sella to support flood damage restoration interventions has provided credit lines for individuals and families and businesses in the affected areas.

As the humanitarian emergency in Ukraine persisted, the Group's initiatives to support the local population continued. In particular, in 2024 the Group supported the Rosa Pristina Foundation with two new donations. The first one of 20.000 euros to support emergency care activities for the children of the Okhmatdyt Children's Hospital in Kiev, hard hit in the Russian attack on July 8: in particular, the donated contribution supported medical and material assistance to the civilian population, urgent transfer of the young patients to other facilities, purchase of essential medical equipment and psychological support for the children, their families and health personnel. The second donation of 25.000 euros supported ordinary medical and material assistance activities to the civilian population. 
Since the beginning of the emergency, the Group has donated a total of 295.000 euros to the Rosa Pristina Foundation: these funds have financed the purchase of ambulances, medical supplies and the construction of Soleterre House in Novoyarychiv, Lviv, which provides shelter for 30 families displaced from the Donbass regions.

The Artistic Direction of Banca Patrimoni Sella & C., established in 2017 as an expression of Sella Group's strong will and commitment to the protection and enhancement of artistic and cultural heritage, carries out a careful work of promoting and spreading culture through the universal language of art. An open dialogue that creates connections: between public and private, national and international realities, between even unusual spaces and places, between generations. An activity dedicated and intended for people that aims to make cultural heritage usable and accessible. In this role as promoter of culture, the Art Direction is also an active part, with its wide range of Art Advisory services, in all those wealth management projects that have an artistic component and are oriented towards the preservation, protection and enhancement of art.
The 2024 programming has combined the artistic vocation of the Direction with an active social commitment through initiatives that have involved different communities on the territory: from hospital realities to schools, from businesses to prestigious cultural realities, from the Sella group's internal population to the participants and visitors of the many proposed activities.

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 2024, the Group's Historical Archives organized a tour entitled “A Bank in the City” structured in three historical walks through which the history of the bank was retraced backwards by visiting the places where it established its roots. A total of one hundred colleagues and family members participated and it was a unique opportunity to discover the deep bond that the bank has built with the city of Biella since 1886 turning into a mutual exchange of growth.

Sella SGR's investment fund, established in 2020 with the aim of combining finance and scientific research, has supported the Umberto Veronesi Foundation in 2024 through an annual contribution of 0.3 percent of total assets.

The Group contributed with a donation of 75.000 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.

In 2024, in agreement with trade unions, the Group smartworking agreement was extended until 03/31/2026. The agreement, introduced on an experimental basis from July 2022, is among the most innovative in the banking sector and allows for smartworking days of up to 13 average days per month on an annual basis, with possible extension up to 15 for some particular cases.

In 2024, 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, the number of paid hours available to colleagues to carry out volunteer work for organizations and associations was doubled-from 7 to 15.

For the fourth year in a row, all of Team Sella has had a free, anonymous and confidential psychological listening service with an experienced 24/7 listening professional.

The promotion of a more sustainable lifestyle is one of the themes that has been the main focus of colleague engagement and awareness-raising activities with the aim of emphasizing the importance of increasingly aligning daily living behavior with the needs of the environmental context in which we live.
In 2024, there was a strong focus on raising awareness in the area of sustainable mobility through targeted communications and initiatives such as the launch of a carpooling app for all colleagues, the implementation of a bike sharing project, and the replacement of all bike racks. In addition, as a Group, we chose to join Green Food Week, a week to raise awareness of food choices, and M'Illumino di meno, National Day for Energy Saving and Sustainable Lifestyles, with ad hoc initiatives carried out in concert with these nationwide occasions for reflection. Ad hoc communications for colleagues continued on the occasion of the anniversary of various World Days (World Water Day, Recycling Day, etc.), which are opportunities to provide specific thematic content and to give colleagues practical advice that they can put into practice in their daily lives. During 2024, a campaign to raise colleagues' awareness of energy conservation in their workplaces also continued.