The fifth edition of the NPL International Meeting, the most important conference in Italy on the subject of non-performing loans, was held today in Venice. Over 500 people including investment funds, banks, servicers and other industry professionals from all over the world took part in the day, full of discussions and issues related to non-performing loans, which also saw the participation of Roberto Nicastro (Presidentte of the four " good banks”, Paolo Petrignani (Fondo Atlante), Davide Serra (Algebris) and Claudio Corsini (former CEO of REV).
In addition to these, the roundtables of the day saw the participation of the most important European and American funds, protagonists of the NPL world: Arrow Global, Hoist Finance, Anacap, Blackstone, PRA, Cerberus, Kruk, and Lindorff. Banks were also present, with Unicredit (Jose Brena) and Intesa Sanpaolo (Carlo Viola), insurance companies and rating agencies (Cattolica, Generali, Moody's and DBRS) and, finally, the digital exchange platforms for British and American NPL portfolios (Tdx, Debtx, Aspen).
"The answer is not obvious on the part of investors" is the comment of Giovanni Bossi, CEO of Banca IFIS. “Even if the deals quintupled between now and 2017, the volumes would not be sufficient to solve the problem of non-performing loans of Italian banks. We need a qualitative leap in the management of non-performing assets: the financial capacity is there, the will on the part of investors is connected to the willingness of institutions to make these assets transparent and not to be intransigent on prices”.
To the question "How to fill the gap" or how to shorten the distance between purchase price and sale price, the speakers answered with some precise indications. To fill the gap you need:
– investment in banks' NPL management capacity
– better quality of documentation and portfolio segmentation
– reduction of recovery times
– improvement of recovery technologies
– greater planning
– creation of joint ventures between banks and specialized structures
– reactivation of the real estate market
