Strong acceleration of factoring in the first few months of the year: according to data released by Assifact, the association that brings together operators in the sector, as at 31 May the total turnover reached 81 billion euros, with a double-digit increase (+16,20%) compared to 2016. Positive sign, on the same date, also for the amount of outstanding loans (+4,61%) and for loans (+6,38%).
The operators' forecasts for the end of 2017 herald, after a very favorable 2016, another year of growth for a business that is worth about 12% of GDP: as at 31 December, in fact, according to Forefact estimates, volumes should register a +7,79% compared to the previous year.
The Assifact assembly elected the new president Fausto Galmarini. He will remain in office until 2020. Galmarini, 67 years old, born in Gallarate (Varese), is responsible for Institutional Relations of Banca Sistema, director of Hypo Bank and member of the Executive Committee of the European Federation for Factoring (EUF).
The analysis of the data collected by Assifact for the first quarter of 2017 sees Lombardy and Lazio confirmed as the regions in which about half of the Italian market is concentrated: in fact, they alone represent 54,94% of existing credits if we consider the creditors who have assigned their credits and 47,48% compared to the debtors whose debts have been assigned. Piedmont follows with 12,28% of the assignors and 7,38% of the assigned debtors
Italy represents the fifth world market, after the UK, China, France and Germany. Globally, factoring maintained its positive trend also in 2016 (+0,35%) despite the sharp fall of the Chinese market, which lost 15%, negatively influencing the Asian area. Europe scored +2,31% despite the weakening of the British pound due to the Brexit effect.
In Italy, the Public Administration accounts for almost a quarter (23%) of the total debts transferred by companies to factoring companies. These are receivables claimed by supplier companies mainly from the national health system and the central administration. The share of Public Administration debts past due is equal to 37%, and of these, 60% has been past due for over a year.
Italy continues to wear the black shirt also in the ranking of actual payment times: according to the latest report by Intrum Iustitia, Italian companies pay in 52 days against 37 of the European average, the Public Administration even in 95 days when the average European Union is 41. Italy remains in the bottom positions despite the improvement recorded in 2017, with businesses reducing average delays by more than 12 days (from 20 to 7) and the Public Administration by 21 days (from 45 to 27 ).
The high "physiological" delays of payments in Italy translate into a disadvantage for operators and a penalization for productive companies. In fact, according to the European prudential supervisory standards, beyond 90 days from the expiry date a credit automatically becomes "non-performing", affecting the capital requirements imposed on the credit system. Operators from countries with the heaviest delays, such as Italy, therefore find themselves having higher capital costs than their competitors from virtuous countries. Assifact proposes to modify, in the context of the reform of the legislation currently underway at European level, the article that defines the default of the debtor: commercial debts could be excluded from the 90-day rule or, alternatively, allow the 90 days to be calculated not starting from the facial due date of the invoice but from the expected payment date. According to Assifact, approximately 2,25 billion of increased loans to Italian companies could be released in this way.
