Le Italian popular banks “they managed to quickly ensure the liquidity necessary to give oxygen to the Italian production system, as required by the Cura Italia and Liquidità decrees”. Assopopolari claims it in a note, specifying that the institutes of the category “have accepted 65% of loan applications below 25 thousand euros”, i.e. those without a creditworthiness assessment, but covered by a full state guarantee, “87% of loan applications above this threshold and 97% of applications for a moratorium”.
We recall that, with regard to i secured loans of an amount exceeding 25 thousand euros, the assessment of creditworthiness is envisaged and the scheme of guarantees established by Liquidity decree is the following:
- 90% for all loans to large companies;
- 100% (90% of the State plus 10% of Confidi) for loans to businesses and the self-employed up to 800 thousand euros;
- 90% up to 5 million.
The disbursement of loans "is added - continues the Assopopolari note - to the very first interventions in favor of companies, commerce and households implemented by popular credit institutions independently and already at the first signs of the crisis to guarantee the survival economy of the productive fabric and the subsistence of thousands of families".
Giuseppe DeLucia Lumeno, general secretary of Assopopolari, underlines that to count “on quick and certain terms to obtain the necessary liquidity becomes essential for the survival of every company, especially if it is small or medium-sized. The popular banks, thanks to a deep-rooted presence, immediately felt this vital need. As a result, support for households and small and medium-sized enterprises, which is a normal way of operating for popular credit, has taken on an exceptional and essential value".
According to De Lucia Lumeno, it is thanks to the "cooperative nature" that the Italian cooperative banks, "also by adapting the operations of the structures to the emergency, are helping to reduce the damage of the crisis and to lay the foundations for the long and complex phase of the next months".
