Throughout Europe, savings banks share common values, such as local ties, a positive attitude to all customers not excluding certain categories of clients, together with a socially responsi- ble behaviour. Savings banks therefore embody a “stakeholder” model, seeking to bring value and return to the whole community of stakeholders, which surround them (investors, suppli- ers, customers, employees and the local community in which they operate). In so doing, savings banks are driven by the conviction that alongside their commercial activi- ties, they also assume a social responsibility. Nonetheless, savings banks are for-profit financial institutions, which seek to reach the highest level of efficiency.
