We think of the banks and - generally - we think of speculation, a brake on private financing (especially in times of crisis, to the detriment of small businesses and families), and shaky governance. Many times this scenario is absolutely true: dancing armchairs, few long-term strategies, even less support for consumer credit.
Banca Ifis, on the other hand, present at The European House – Ambrosetti workshop in Cernobbio with its managing director Giovanni Bossi, It is not so. “Our bank has existed for 30 years, it has always had the same president (Sebastien von Furstenberg, ed) and I have been CEO for 18 years: who more than us can think in perspective and not in the immediate future?”. So here is the possibility of investing in the future of Italy and its families. Through factoring for companies, through the purchase of bonds for almost 8 billion euros interpreted as a loan to the State without speculative purposes, and, new in the plan at the end of 2012, through purchase of non-performing loans claimed by consumer credit companies from natural persons, or families overwhelmed by the crisis who not only do not make ends meet but are unable to repay their debts and/or ask for further financing.
“We allow at families included in the so-called black lists – explains Bossi in the setting of Villa d'Este, on Lake Como – to get back in bonis: we put them in a position to pay their debts in a deferred manner, on average within 2-4 years, and without interest”. Easy, convenient, concretely convenient. And the interest for the bank? "In the short term it is almost nil, but we buy the portfolio at 2-3% of the nominal value, to then obtain 8-10% even if the terms are medium-long, of years". Long times, which however for families mean really taking a breather, so much so that more and more of them turn to the bank based in Mestre: “To date we have 550 thousand open positions, for a total nominal value of 4 billion euros and an average credit of around 8 thousand euros”.
However, foresight is not the only added value: there is also the hope of putting a virtuous circle into action. “In Northern Europe, the institutions that carry out this operation recover much more, so I think this is a path that we should all follow to a certain extent, especially the banks that have more liquidity. At present, consumer credit companies apply high rates because too high a percentage of the credit is not repaid. If they recover more, they will be able to lower interest rates and consequently give more loans”.
Reasoning that does not make sense, as well as that relating to government bonds: “We have around 7,5 billion euro in our portfolio – explains Bossi – we were able to afford them having good liquidity and a very short and agile chain of control of the bank, and we keep them until maturity because we believe in Italy”.
A country that according to many has risked or is in danger of default, and is struggling to live on the shaky foundations of the Letta government? “The Government is having difficulties, it is true, but Italy will not default. It is simply time that we stopped protecting the income from positions, the strong and well represented lobbies in Parliament, and that as soon as possible a new electoral law was made to return to the vote with better rules".
Not right away though. Even Giovanni Bossi, like a large part of the Ambrosetti club community, which includes influential bankers, economists and politicians from all over the world present at the usual weekend in Cernobbio and almost all queued up on the Roubini line, does not hope for the current executive to fall anytime soon: “Yesterday I also voted for survival”.
