The European Commission has given the green light to the plans presented by the Governments of Italy and Hungary for the management of banks' impaired assets which, according to a note, "do not involve state aid". The Commission concluded that, based on the models used for pricing, the Hungarian asset management company will acquire the non-performing loans at market prices.
For Italy, the Commission has decided that "under the state guarantee scheme chosen by the Italian authorities, the state will be remunerated in line with market conditions for the risk assumed by granting a guarantee on non-performing securitized loans". In this way, the agreement reached by is formalized Competition Commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, and by the Minister of Economy and Finance, Pier Carlo Padoan, last 26 January.
If a member state of the EU, continues the note from the European Commission, intervenes as a private investor would do and obtains a remuneration for the risk assumed equivalent to that which the private investor would have accepted, the intervention does not constitute State aid. Therefore, the Commission has concluded that the measures proposed by Hungary and Italy do not involve state aid within the meaning of European Union law.
