A new guarantee platform for loans to small and medium-sized enterprises. This is what one of the forthcoming amendments to the Stability Law provides. This was confirmed today by the Deputy Minister of the Economy, Stefano Fassina, as he left the meeting in the Senate on the ex Budget Law which was attended by the speakers, representatives of the Government and the majority.
In giving the go-ahead to the proposed amendment – as reported by the number two in via XX Settembre – the Executive "resolved the doubts" about the attribution to the Treasury of the function of guarantor on the loans of Cassa depositi e prestiti. The perplexities concerned possible objections from the European Commission, which last week already criticized our country for not having done enough in terms of reducing the public debt.
The new instrument "will allow the CDP to purchase credit packages to be allocated to SMEs, relieving banks of credit risks", the deputy minister had explained in recent days, clarifying that the mechanism will go beyond the Guarantee Fund and will subtract "from the balance sheets of banks the weight of risky loans, transferring it to the public guarantee”.
Today Fassina specified that the measure will be contained in an amendment by the rapporteurs. The deputy minister did not specify when the proposed modification will arrive in the Budget commission of Palazzo Madama, but the amendments by the Government and the rapporteurs should be presented between today and tomorrow. Some modifications signed by the Executive are already ready, but these are mostly interventions on issues that should not cause dissent in the majority.
