Banks, Fabi: default risk for 2.7 million businesses and households in June

• The ECB warns banks: "Beware of an increase in non-performing loans"

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• Visco: high risk that savings slow down the recovery, banks are ready to finance

• Covid closes 4,000 businesses led by women in 2020

• Coronavirus.

  Cgia: "Almost 300 thousand micro-enterprises and 1.9 million employees at risk"

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March 22, 2021 At the end of June, when the moratoriums on almost 300 billion euros of bank loans expire, there is a risk that 2.7 million Italian companies and households will suddenly find themselves on the verge of substantial financial distress and on the basis of the new Eba standards be classified in the default position.

It is when he denounces the Fabi (Italian Autonomous Banking Federation) explaining that in about 100 days the last extension - introduced with the Budget law - of the rule that has allowed to freeze the installments of the loans of 1.3 million companies for 198 billions and 1.4 million citizens for 95 billion: in total, over 293 billion.

Due to a series of restrictions approved by the European Banking Authority (EBA), in force since last January, new, stringent rules on the management of non-performing loans will have to be applied next June: - underlines the union - the consequential interruption of the moratoriums , no longer extendable, will mean that at least a significant portion of the parties with the installments currently suspended, in the absence of liquidity necessary to repay the arrears, can be classified by the banks in a default position ". According to Fabi, with data from the Task liquidity force updated to 10 March, the issue concerns 2.7 million debt positions (ie loans) of companies and families that are customers of banks that have submitted a request for suspension of installment payments, taking advantage of the possibility granted by the "Cura Italia" decree law passed , last year, at the beginning of the economic-health emergency caused by the Coronavirus.

essential to ensure additional liquidity for both companies (1.3 million) and citizens (1.4 million).

However, the pandemic has neither slowed down nor postponed the entry into force of new supervisory regulations for banks set up by the EBA.

More specifically, these are the guidelines on the management of NPLs that require banks to have a more rigid ranking of impaired loans: a strict regulation, still highlights the union, which has also affected, among other things, "suspended" loans with moratoriums and which, according to the new European rules, are classified as non-performing exposures.

"The European rules on non-performing loans entered into force last January, but the government, amidst the regulatory folds, managed to extend the suspension of loans until next June, with a rule included in the budget law for 2021: more postponements for the application of the EBA Guidelines, however, will no longer be possible. Nor are some informal clarifications recently published by the EBA sufficient to avoid the risk of financial failure of 2.7 million subjects ", concludes Fabi.

"The moratorium expires at the end of June and banks currently have two options: to demand payment of the installments or to put insolvent customers into bad debts. With the current crisis it is unthinkable that businesses and families can start over to pay off their debts. The problem is very serious because it has a social and economic impact. If only 10% of businesses with suspended loans fail, hundreds of thousands of jobs would skip in an instant. To solve the problem, they must intervene, with great incisiveness and conviction, government and the Bank of Italy ".

This was stated by the secretary general of Fabi, Lando Maria Sileoni, commenting on the study on the moratoriums, interviewed live on La7 during the Coffee Break broadcast.

"Everyone must do their part with determination: the government must convince the European Commission, the Bank of Italy must act at the level of the European Banking Authority (EBA) to which it belongs. You cannot ask for money from whom , today, it has not - underlined Sileoni - the same extension must also be requested for state guarantees on loans, this measure also expires in June. In addition to extending the deadline, as Abi rightly claims, the guarantee must be extended from 6 years to 15 years and must also be applied for loans exceeding 800,000 euros, for large companies.