The Association of Italian Banks has said yes: the credit institutions will do their part to put into practice the advance of the severance pay in the paycheck, a measure that should flow into the Stability law arriving this evening on the table of the Council of Ministers.
“In recent days we have worked very hard on the legal aspects and technical complexities of this highly innovative and all-Italian measure – said the president of ABI, Antonio Patuelli, at the end of today's meeting of the executive committee in Milan -. Now that an article is looming, which this afternoon should be approved by the Council of Ministers within the Stability law, we are satisfied”.
The project is this: anticipate the severance pay in the pay slips of private sector employees (perhaps agricultural sector employees, housekeepers and carers will also be excluded) starting from the second half of 2015; the workers will be able to choose whether to accept or not and the advance will take place thanks to the mediation of the banks, which will carry out a treasury function with a guarantee from the State, avoiding the collapse of the SMEs' balance sheets.
According to Patuelli, it is “a great innovation that guarantees an extra chance for workers. Nothing is taken away but one more possibility is added, always with the intention of propelling the recovery. The entire ABI executive committee fully shared this judgement”.
Patuelli and the director general of the ABI, Giovanni Sabatini, then explained that, in practice, the ABI will define an agreement with the MEF and other ministries to which the individual institutions will be invited to adhere: "The banks - they explained - will carry out substantially a treasury function, without assuming creditworthiness, with the guarantee of the State".
In this way, credit institutions will be able to provide companies in need with the funds necessary to distribute the severance pay. The convention will define the general framework of the agreement. Patuelli also clarified that banks will also be able to use the loans received from the ECB with the Tltro auctions for the advance of the TFR.
