In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Peace be with you!

Dear brothers and sisters, welcome.

I extend a warm greeting to His Excellency and to all of you. I am very pleased to have this meeting, which gives us the opportunity to reflect together on the role of banks and credit unions in our society.

The institutions you represent have varied origins, united by the need to support entrepreneurship and public and private finance at different times and in different contexts throughout Italian history. Their beginnings, characterized by courage and creativity, bear witness to the complementarity between saving and investment, private and public, for the realization of the common good and for sound economic growth.

Indeed, your financial institutions have promoted, in various ways, a just sharing and redistribution of wealth among individuals, businesses and institutions, making its benefits more accessible to all and valuing the contribution of each. This is a social function that fits well within the mission entrusted by God to humanity to be stewards of creation, whereby “every human activity … is called to bear fruit, to use generously and equitably the gifts that God provides to all, and to nourish with lively confidence the seeds of goodness implanted in the whole of creation as a promise of abundance” (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, Oeconomicae et pecuniariae quaestiones, 6 January 2018, 4).

Precisely by virtue of this constructive capacity, the banking system has, over the centuries, found itself at the centre of major processes of economic and social development, becoming an increasingly complex and multifaceted entity capable of influencing people’s lives. The concentration of capital and the availability of skilled expertise have provided it with vast economic resources, with the consequent dual possibility of becoming a promoter of equitable sharing for the general good or, conversely, a proponent of selfish accumulation, a source of inequality and misery.

Withinthis broader context, your history bears witness to how those involved in the financial market can not only do good by acting righteously, but also by informing and educating the people and communities in which they operate regarding the prudent and morally appropriate use of resources—where sensitivity, intelligence, honesty and charity are combined—and by promoting “humanistic standards … [in which] profit and solidarity are no longer antagonists” (ibid. 11). It also shows how this way of acting ensures, over time, the healthy and lasting growth of structures, social models and relationships.

The spirit of your foundations serves as a reminder to all, in particular, that it is not capital that enters a bank in the first instance, but people, and that behind the numbers there are men and women, families in need of help. For this reason, in a context where the high level of computerization of tools imposes increasingly elaborate and artificial intermediaries in interpersonal relationships, you, as heirs to a great tradition of human care, are called upon to ensure that those who access your services do not feel abandoned to the coldness of algorithmic systems – however efficient and mathematically precise they may be – but that, behind the technical tools, they perceive, today as in the past, the presence of people ready to listen and keen to do good.

Banks can hold a great deal of influence over the structural evolution of a society, and also its cultural development. Therefore your presence is valuable: to remind those who all too easily retreat into purely material values, confusing ends and means in life, that even in financial matters we must always place the person at the centre, and “on that pillar build the alternative social structures we need” (cf. Francis, Address to participants in the World Meeting of Popular Movements, 28 October 2014; cf. Encyclical Letter Laudato si’, 24 May 2015, 189).

Your commitment in this regard is vibrant and relevant, as evidenced by the numerous humanitarian and cultural projects you promote. I encourage you to continue to work in this way, keeping alive your vocation as mutual support organizations and always directing your commitment towards an ethic of solidarity. It is the seed from which you were born and the solid, deep root – hidden though it may often be – thanks to which the tree of your organizations continues to grow and flourish.

Faithful to your origins, never forget charity; on the contrary, make it increasingly the guiding principle of your strategic choices! Thank you for what you do. I remember you in my prayers and, entrusting you to Mary’s intercession, I bless you from my heart. Thank you.

____________________________

Holy See Press Office Bulletin, 16 May 2026