The path of innovation and sustainability is costing Italian companies dearly. The money borrowed from banks to reorganize productions and much more is slow to be repaid and so is the Study Center Unimpresa did it know that the defaulted loans amounted to 38 billion euros. A safe to be opened, by whose hands, no one knows. These are mostly loans which in banking jargon are non-performing loans (nopl), i.e. non-performing or uncollectable loans. We've been talking about it for months but the numbers are starting to scare us and the autumn that some say is hot has arrived.
At the Ambrosetti Forum in Cernobbio, the Minister of Enterprises, Adolfo Urso he reiterated that the government is working on a provision, especially in favor of small and medium-sized businesses. There is talk of an operation that would allow entrepreneurs to buy back the loan at a pre-established price, in practice at a percentage of the original value. The operation would have retroactive effects, generating considerable confusion on the markets and investors. The credits are spread throughout Italy, but the Lombardia it reached a record with over 9 billion: 24,5% of the national total. Following are Lazio with 5 and a half billion and Emila Romagna with 3,4 billion. Both together touch the most industrialized region of the country. A race to lose or not?
A company has reported that the amount of "lost" loans is approx 15 billion bad debts real, i.e. those that are recorded in the loss chapter in the balance sheets. Another 21,8 billion are classified as "unlikely to pay". In short, a difficult blow to bear with interest rate policy scaring everything and everyone and an executive who in Monza Meloni says must "run more" but in Rome is stuck in the pits. As for the Blacklists of loans, the industrial structure of the individual regions must be considered, which have faced technological challenges, post-Covid, expensive energy, increase in raw materials, innovation. In last place is Calabria with 237 million euros: a figure that explains some things.
Are Loans “Good Debt”?
The alarm of the Unimpresa Study Center which worked on data from the Bank of Italy is therefore well founded. We would all like a more virtuous Italy with loans aimed at improving the country's system. If the data is read as a reflection of extensive action towards the digital and energy transition, the government could strive to open up negotiating options that are not suffocating for businesses. Maybe it would come out the real nature of the debtor, oriented towards development and ecological competitiveness. A kind of "good debt", as he said Mario Draghi. On the contrary, if loans without sustainable and/or innovative added value were to emerge, it would be a disaster and smart industrialists would have to be punished. “Non-performing loans,” he explained Giuseppe Spadafora, vice president of Unimpresa- must be kept under control for two reasons: the first is that the liquidity granted at variable rates is subject to rate increases. This means, over time, greater difficulty in honoring reimbursement deadlines. The second reason concerns the growing rates on new loans, i.e. increasingly unfavorable conditions for accessing credit for businesses”. Spadafora also shares the extra profit tax of the banks. In his opinion “it must serve as moral suasion towards the top management of the banking system so that they change their attitude and are more attentive to the needs of companies». Perhaps he did not calculate well all the effects on the credit system for businesses and on the major objectives of the Italian system that the Prime Minister talks about Giorgia Meloni. But there is time to change your mind
A weighty judgment has arrived on what the government is thinking of doing, that of Scope Ratings The European Rating Agency has rejected without appeal the patriotic ideas of Meloni, Urso and Fratelli d'Italia. “The government's proposal could inflict significant collateral damage to the Italian npl market”. There are problems related to "the option to repurchase exposures already sold to third parties through ABS or credit assignment" he reports Online finance. Let's say that for politics, summer confirms itself as a season of bad thoughts and delusions. In fact, there has already been turbulence even before the record figure of 38 billion in bad debts was known. Something must be done to get out of the impasse. The matter has become serious and the safe is not a mirage.
