The interoperability table helps users read two distinct instruments together: Italy's SME–Bank Sustainability Dialogue Document and VSME. It is not a universal bank questionnaire and does not require every institution to adopt the same format.
The December 2025 document comes from the Sustainable Finance Roundtable coordinated by the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance. Official copy hosted by the Bank of Italy.
Start with the actual request
Record who is asking, the purpose, period and deadline. “Energy consumption” may concern the whole company, a site or a particular activity. A similar label does not establish equivalence: check units, boundaries, definitions and detail.
A working classification
We suggest three internal labels, not official MEF terminology:
- Reusable: definitions and boundaries match.
- Needs adaptation: a reconciliation is needed, for example from kWh to MWh or from site data to company totals.
- Collect separately: the requested information is absent from the dossier.
Use the original table for the detailed comparison. This guide does not reproduce or replace it.
Illustrative example
An SME receives a request for last year's energy consumption. Finance has twelve bills per meter. Before reusing B3 totals, it checks that all sites are included, billing periods match the reporting year and adjustments have not been counted twice.
If the bank also requests insurance information, prepare a relevant coverage extract. A policy does not become a VSME datapoint simply because it belongs in the same bank file; a report does not replace insurance checks.
One dossier, selective disclosures
Internally retain the question, value, source, transformation, responsible person and review date. Share only necessary information, avoiding individual payslips, medical records or unrelated personal documents.
Reuse reduces repeated reconstruction but still requires checking each request. It does not guarantee credit, favourable interest rates, acceptance or freedom from follow-up questions.
Related: data inventory, bank evidence pack, standard versions.