The growth trend of the Italian factoring market continues also in 2016, which continues to support the national economy in the effort towards a real and consistent recovery. After a positive change of 4,09% recorded at the end of 2015 in relation to a total turnover of approximately 185 billion euro, the expected trend for the whole of 2016 estimates a further increase of 3,90%.
The final data for 2015 and the forecasts for the current year were released by Assifact, the Italian factoring association which brings together operators in a sector which in Italy is worth around 12% of GDP. At 31 December 2015, the amount of outstanding loans also showed growth (+3,02%), as did the total of advances and payments made to companies (+4,46%). At the same date, based on the analysis of the territorial distribution of the companies that use factoring, 33,34% of the assigning customers are located in Lombardy. Followed by Lazio with 21,34% and Piedmont with 10,71%. The transferred debtors are also concentrated in Lazio and Lombardy, with 26,87% and 19,99% respectively. Followed by Piedmont and Emilia Romagna with 7,55% and 7,40%.
83,64% of transferor customers are businesses and non-financial companies. Analyzing the economic distribution of the assigned debtors, an important share of the portfolio is confirmed represented by the Public Administrations (equal to 26,55%). More than half of the assigned debtors (53,36%) is attributable to businesses and non-financial companies. The general improvement in average payment times and delays in Italy also continues, both for the private and public sectors: the average effective duration of a payment drops from 94 to 80 days for businesses and from 165 to 144 days for Public administration. Especially for public sector debts, payment performances have not yet approached "physiological" values, in line with the legislation which provides for payment within 30/60 days.
Despite the efforts of the last successive governments, the gap with the other advanced European economies therefore remains high. Factoring maintains a low percentage of non-performing loans. “Confirming the limited risk involved in credit transfer transactions by specialized companies, non-performing loans – underlines Alessandro Carretta, general secretary of Assifact and professor of Economics of financial intermediaries at the Tor Vergata University of Rome – represent only 3,42 % of total exposure as at 31 December 2015, in line with the level at the end of 2014 and well below bank non-performing loans which are equal to 11,02% of bank loans”.
