The problem of non-performing loans on banks' balance sheets is not only Italian. During the summer holidays to end up in the eye of the storm was the Republic of San Marino, whose institutes are literally on the brink of collapse.
To worry not only the amount of non-performing loans, but also the existence of a ten-year crisis also caused by the three tax shields of former minister Tremonti and the voluntary disclosure launched by the Renzi government which prompted many Italians to bring back their capital at home, abandoning the banks of San Marino. Before these measures were passed, San Marino could count on 12 banks, today there are six. To exacerbate the concern about the fate of the Republic too data relating to funding showing a real collapse: from 14 billion in 2008 to 6,6 in March 2016.
If all this were not enough, politics has also been put into it. Antonella Mularoni, member of the State Congress and already active in the secretariat of state for foreign affairs has decided to resign, while negotiations begin between the parties in view of the next elections.
A difficult political-economic situation which could suffer the coup de grace from the conspicuous presence of non-performing loans which would put the future of local banks at risk. According to the International Monetary Fund, the figure would even reach 2 billion, most of which without guarantees, of real estate origin and created by Italian customers, as well as attributable to a single bank: the Cassa di Risparmio, which after repeated recapitalizations, is now de facto in public hands.
As Corriere della Sera points out, the amount corresponds to “half of the total loans disbursed by San Marino banks, 140% of GDP. To give an idea, we are at the level of Cyprus 2012 or Greece 2013”.
The Minister for Culture Giuseppe Morganti also spoke to confirm the figure, speaking of 1,9 billion Npl. On the other hand, the Abs, the Association of San Marino banks, has a different opinion, which instead speaks of a buy figure in the order of hundreds of millions. What the exact value is, to date, is not known, at least until the survey promoted by the central bank led by Wafik Grais on the quality of assets is completed. In any case, if no action is taken to restore state budgets, the future collapse of San Marino could become a far from improbable option.
