Image: Palazzo Zevallos Stigliano, Naples
Intesa Sanpaolo has said it supported Tuscany’s businesses and wider economy in 2025 with more than €3.3 billion in lending, alongside services for international expansion and a network of relationships with universities, competence centres, foundations, institutions and cultural organisations. In a statement published on 3 August 2026, the bank said the financing was aimed at accompanying company projects and investments and strengthening the competitiveness of the regional industrial fabric.
The figure is presented as part of Intesa Sanpaolo’s broader work with regional client companies, with the bank saying the first quarter of 2026 continued to show positive momentum. The statement describes Tuscany as a productive system that remains resilient and competitive, with strong capacity to perform in foreign markets. It also says the bank’s support includes tools and services for internationalisation, missions abroad and extraordinary financing designed to create development opportunities.
Tito Nocentini, regional director for Tuscany and Umbria in Intesa Sanpaolo’s Banca dei Territori division, said the bank “supports actively and with determination the growth of the real economy of Tuscany”, adding that it helps companies compete in foreign markets and that exports are above the Italian average. He said more than €3.3 billion had been disbursed to client companies in the region in 2025, and that financing in the first quarter of 2026 confirmed the strength and dynamism of the Tuscan productive fabric.
The bank also framed its role in Tuscany as a territorial one, built on collaborations that connect research, business, capital and social development. The network named in the statement includes Fondazione CR Firenze and the Innovation Center, the Scuola IMT di Lucca, the Universities of Florence, Pisa and Siena, and Fondazione Caript. Among the cultural bodies cited are Fondazione Ivan Bruschi in Arezzo, the Galleria di Palazzo degli Alberti in Prato and Pistoia Musei.
Intesa Sanpaolo’s Research Department used the announcement to underline Tuscany’s export performance. According to the bank’s elaborations, the region’s total exports reached €21.5 billion in the first three months of 2026, up 30.2% from the same period in 2025, compared with 1.3% growth nationally. Districts and technology poles together generated €10.4 billion in exports during the quarter, while higher-tech sectors produced €5.4 billion in foreign sales, up 25.1%.
The statement highlighted the pharmaceutical pole in Tuscany, present in the provinces of Florence, Siena, Lucca and Pisa, which reached €5.31 billion in exports in the quarter, a 25.6% increase year on year. It said the sector employs more than 6,000 people across about 50 local units and operates within an ecosystem linked to universities, research centres and health facilities. The Florence biomedical sector, with more than 360 companies and about 2,400 employees, recorded €116.6 million in exports, up 5.3%.
Intesa Sanpaolo also pointed to regional indicators for research, start-ups and labour market performance. Tuscany devoted 1.51% of regional GDP to research and development, above the Italian average of 1.38%, and in March 2026 it had more than 500 start-ups and more than 300 benefit companies. The bank said the region’s 2025 unemployment rate stood at 4.3%, compared with 6.1% nationally, while the youth NEET rate was 8.2% versus 9.9% for Italy as a whole.
