In recent years, the economic difficulties of businesses and households, with the consequent deterioration of a substantial portion of loans, have increased the role of guarantees as a factor facilitating the relationship between banks and customers. Between 2007 and 2012, the stock of guaranteed business loans (real and personal) increased from 63,5% to 67,6%.
With reference to the economic sectors as a whole, the ratio between loans secured only by collateral and total loans used in September 2013 was 45%, with a higher incidence in the lower classes of loans used. The absence of collateral can be mitigated by the provision of guarantees by specialized intermediaries.
In Europe, the market for guarantees carries out its activity in favor of about 2 million small and medium-sized enterprises and has a strong geographical concentration: in 2011 the total value of outstanding guarantees mainly belonged to the guarantee systems of Italy, France, Germany and Spain.
Among the European mutual guarantee companies, the Italian Confidi are among the most important: the OECD quantifies the weight of the guarantees intermediated by the Italian Confidi at about 41% on the total guarantees given by European guarantee schemes. In recent years, the Italian Confidi have been characterized by a significant phenomenon of concentration: at the end of 2009, 742 confidi were active, down to 642 at the end of 2012; of these, 58 were also subject to the supervision of the Bank of Italy.
At the latest available date (2012), most of the Confidi were concentrated in the regions of the South and the Islands (50,5%). In the same year, the total value of the guarantees issued by the Confidi amounted to 21,9 billion euro, down by approximately 10% compared to the previous year. The guarantees are mainly concentrated in the northern regions. Approximately 50% of Confidi in Italy issue guarantees totaling less than 6 million euro.
The long crisis that has characterized the Italian economy has made the problems that the Confidi system has been suffering from for some time more evident. In 2012, the incidence of guarantees against impaired exposures on total guarantees reached 19,1% from 11,1% in 2011. The difficulties are also evident in terms of profitability, productivity and operating costs. Finally, the capital endowment often presents critical situations. The operational framework of the Confidi was also complicated by the loss of the incentive to transform themselves into supervised intermediaries capable of permitting the recognition of personal guarantees for the purpose of mitigating credit risk.
However, the Bank of Italy has recognized the requisites envisaged under the regulations on credit risk mitigation for the first-demand counter-guarantees issued to Confidi by the Central Guarantee Fund. In such a context, the role of Confidi certainly needs to be redesigned.
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