MILAN (Reuters) - Intesa Sanpaolo (BIT:ISP) Chief Executive Carlo Messina is hoping to stay in his role for "many years", and prevent his bank's investments in technology from causing any job losses, he said on Thursday.
"My personal commitment, as long as I stay CEO ... which I intend to remain for many years ... is that no employee will have to leave the bank or be negatively affected by technology," Messina told an event on social inequalities.
On Wednesday, Intesa (LON:0HBC) said it would spend 1.5 billion euros ($1.58 billion) between 2023 and 2027 on projects to help the needy, of which a third would be used to pay 1,000 staff the bank intends to redeploy to run the projects.
"We can do that because we already spend 300 million euros a year for social causes," Messina said.
Intesa has among core shareholders charitable banking foundations inspired by Catholic values, commonly referred to in Italy as "Catholic finance".
"I hope to have the honour to continue to lead our company for many years with this philosophy," Messina said.
In a letter to Messina released by the bank, Pope Francis said Intesa was answering his call to embrace a more humane finance and economics and urged him to do more.
Messina said current high inflation was "a total injustice" hitting disproportionately more people of less means.
At the helm since 2013, Messina has made the digital switch a key plank of his long-term strategy for Intesa, with a view to cutting costs and focusing resources on wealth management and insurance operations.
Intesa this year launched both Isybank, a cloud-based, low-cost mobile bank to serve younger, mass-market clients, and Fideuram Direct, a digital wealth management service targeting younger private banking clients.
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