MILAN, July 3 (Reuters) - Italy's biggest retail bank, Intesa Sanpaolo SpA, foresees 50 billion euros ($70.1 billion) to 60 billion euros in new loans to small and mid-sized enterprises over the next three years, the bank said on Friday.
The lending target comes after weeks of criticism by the centre-right government which claims Italian banks are failing to lend to smaller companies that have been hit by the deep economic downturn.
Intesa Sanpaolo has 60 billion euros available for small and mid-sized companies over the next 36 months from loans already granted, the bank said in a statement. Another 30 million euros in new loans are to be granted on request.
The bank "expects new medium and long-term credit disbursements of some 50-60 billion euro over the same period", it said. The figure for the last six months was about 8 billion euros.
On-balance-sheet lending to small and mid-sized companies was stable over the last 12 months at 152 billion euros, it said.
Intesa Sanpaolo has reached an accord with business lobby Confindustria to lend to small and mid-sized businesses.
Italy has set up a 10 billion euro to 12 billion euro bond-based scheme to bolster banks' capital and to assure financing to smaller companies. Intesa Sanpaolo has said it wants 4 billion euros under the programme.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development forecast last week that Italy's economy, the third-biggest in the euro zone, would shrink 5.5 percent this year.
Intesa Sanpaolo executives have contended customers are shunning loans during the downturn.
UniCredit, Italy's biggest bank by market value, said on Monday it had lent 4.8 billion euros this year despite the downturn. The bank took out newspaper ads this week to outline its lending to smaller companies. ($1=.7133 Euro) (Reporting by Ian Simpson; editing by Simon Jessop)