

In view of the exceptional nature of this situation, and given the uncertain course of the emergency and its impact in the coming months, on 1 April the Bank's Board of Directors decided, in accordance with the prudence principle, to take the responsible course of action of following the supervisory authority's recommendation and thus to propose that the distribution of the 2019 dividend be postponed until at least 1 October 2020, and thus to proceed with payment of the dividend after that date, provided that no regulations or recommendations from the supervisory authorities to the contrary are issued before that date. Banca Ifis offers its debtors sustainable long-term repayment plans with an average time to recovery of the portfolio of five to seven years. In addition, we foresee that the impact of the court closures will be temporary and will primarily be tied to longer payment times rather than to reduced payments. In the future, we are confident that our ten years of experience in the sector will allow us to continue to make sound purchases. We continued to invest in the non-performing loans market, taking an active part in unsecured NPL sales processes, and we enhanced our telephone recovery activity following the temporary suspension of operations by the agents network. In just a few weeks we prepared a digital platform to streamline the process of granting new loans guaranteed by the government under the “Cure Italy” Decree. In addition, some sectors particularly affected by Covid-19 began to be closely monitored and covered. We contacted over 5.000 customers and acquired approximately 300 of them, developing new products and services like loans for industrial conversions or expansion of production lines in response to the emergency. We stepped up our digital transformation processes and in just a few weeks made a great technological leap forwards, testing out new working methods that allowed us to achieve important objectives, confirming the agility and dynamism of the Bank's model. In March, when the spread of the pandemic resulted in the closure of many businesses and severely limited the movement of individuals, we used every means at our disposal to rise to this challenge and manage the new situation as well as possible. The corporate and organisational restructuring of the NPL business and the work to build an IT platform in support of small and medium enterprises were launched on schedule. Several transactions were completed during the period, such as the closing of the sale of the property on Corso Venezia in Milan, which generated a capital gain of 24 million Euro, and the successful placement of a senior bond of 400 million Euro as part of the strategy of diversifying funding sources. The results for the first quarter were affected by Covid-19, although the first two months of the year were in line with the targets set in the Business Plan. “The financial impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic are clearly characterised by a high level of uncertainty, but the Group's financial performance and financial position are solid and enable the Bank to face the current financial crisis with confidence: at 31 March we had increased our CET1 ratio to 11,12% (+0,16% on 31 December 2019) and available liquidity amounted to approximately 1,4 billion Euro.
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Banca Ifis promptly implemented incisive measures to protect the health and safety of its employees and customers, while also ensuring full operations: in around ten days, 93% of our people began to work remotely, and the Company continued its business in accordance with all regulations,” explained Luciano Colombini, Chief Executive Officer of Banca Ifis. “We are facing a complex time, an unforeseen global crisis, to which we have responded swiftly and efficiently. Mestre (Venice), – The Board of Directors of Banca Ifis met today, chaired by Deputy Chairman Ernesto Fürstenberg Fassio, and approved the results for the first quarter of 2020.
