I state-guaranteed loans in favor of small and medium-sized enterprises are "a complex mechanism", which however "eventually got going". He assures it Paul Angelini, head of Supervision of the Bank of Italy, heard Thursday morning in the bilateral commission of inquiry into banks led by Carla Ruocco.
Despite the initial difficulties, between 15 and 29 May "there has been a strong recovery – continues Angelini – and the disbursement percentage rose from 33 to 61%".
On the other hand, according to the number one of the Supervisory Authority of Via Nazionale, it is necessary to be cautious in evaluating these operations, because "the sand in the gears is still present".
However, Bankitalia expresses “a positive opinion on the trend of the moratoriums” on loans to businesses “and a few more problems for Gasparrini”, ie the requests for moratoriums on mortgages to families.
On this second front, in fact, the banks have come across a IT block by Consap, "which in one day received more applications than in an entire year", explains Angelini. The Concessionaire then solved the problem by expanding the workforce and enhancing IT services.
Will everything go smoothly from here on out? Unfortunately it won't be that simple. According to the head of Supervision, after the conversion into law of Liquidity decree "it is very probable" that there will be new slowdowns – even if less serious than those of May – because, "by changing the parameters, the machine must start".
Angelini claims that the amendments to the provision have improved the situation, but Bankitalia still expects "a certain heterogeneity" in the disbursements "may remain".
Also for this reason, the central institute has already sent some letters to slower banks to ask to resolve the problems causing the delays. “There are still tensions between individual intermediaries – concludes Angelini – as of May 29th there were still ten banks out of a hundred disbursing less than 20% of credit requests” from businesses.
Meanwhile, a new series of events took place in early June meetings between the Bank of Italy and consumer associations. The objective was "to evaluate the evolution of the situation on the difficulties expressed by citizens in accessing the measures provided for by the Liquidità and Cura Italia decrees1", reads in a note from Via Nazionale.
"An overall improvement in relations between banks and customers in accessing support measures was mainly shared, after the difficulties that emerged in the start-up phase - continues the note - The difficulties instead were confirmed for cases not covered by the support, in particular for consumer credit and the increased exposure of customers to the risk of fraud or online scams”.
The meetings will continue "at short intervals" in the coming months.
Still with regard to secured loans, Intesa Sanpaolo makes it known that to date it has disbursed over 100 loans of up to 25 euros, for a total amount of more than 2 billion euros, largely advanced with respect to receipt of the guarantee from the Central Fund. The Bank "has set up its intervention in the direction of simplifying and speeding up the credit disbursement processes - reads a note - by strengthening the territorial structures with support task forces and developing a web platform to manage online requests without having to bring to the branch".
