The relationship between bank and business is closer in Italy than in the rest of Europe. Within the eurozone, ours is among the very few countries where bank lending to businesses exceeds lending to households. Despite a significant correction in recent years, the gap between the Italian situation and the main European references (Eurozone average, Germany, France) remains very large. The strengthening of the capital endowment is one of the salient features of the transformation process of Italian and European companies. In recent years, the incidence of assets on total liabilities has grown significantly in Italy.
However, unlike other important European countries, Italy is still below the figure recorded in the years preceding the 2008-09 crisis.
Compared to 2007, the stock of corporate bonds outstanding in the euro area has in fact doubled, reaching 1.200 billion euro. In absolute terms, the Italian market is one and a half times the Dutch one, more than twice the Belgian one, four times the Spanish one, not much lower than the German one. In addition to the growth in volumes, the Italian corporate bond market is notable for the expansion of the number of issuers in recent years, also a consequence of the development of the so-called mini-bond market.
Among the many chapters that make up the bank-company relationship, that of non-performing loans has occupied a decidedly central place in Italy for some time now. About ¾ of non-performing loans and a similar share of total non-performing loans can be attributed to non-financial companies. The recovery rate of these loans varies greatly depending on many factors.
