Banking and Companies, Guarantees and Credit to Companies, ABI/Confindustria Agreement on new loan guarantees
An agreement that represents an important step in the process of modernizing relations between banks and businesses was signed at Palazzo Chigi by the President of Confindustria, Vincenzo Boccia and the General Director of ABI, Giovanni Sabatini, in the presence of the Prime Minister, Paolo Gentiloni and of the Ministers of Economy and Finance, Pier Carlo Padoan and of Justice, Andrea Orlando.
The agreement is aimed at ensuring a better credit service to businesses, allowing them to extend the duration of loans and free up resources for growth, thanks to a more flexible system of guarantees and faster credit recovery times.
The “Agreement for credit and the enhancement of the new guarantee figures” promotes the use of the so-called Patto Marciano and the non-possessory pledge to guarantee bank loans, introduced by Decree Law 59/2016.
The objective of these new forms of guarantee, together with the measures introduced by the DL n. 83/2015 to improve the executive and insolvency procedures, is to improve access to credit for companies and strengthen the economic recovery in our country.
In particular, the Credit Agreement and the enhancement of the new guarantee figures signed by ABI and Confindustria contain some provisions aimed at strengthening the full operation of art. 48-bis of the TUB, which introduced into our legal system the possibility that the loan agreement between the bank and the company can be guaranteed by the transfer in favor of the creditor, in the event of default by the debtor, of ownership of a property (not main residence) place as a guarantee of the same.
The agreement provides for the possibility of inserting specific contractual clauses aimed at strengthening the value of the guarantee and at the same time to protect the debtor company more closely, also in terms of more favorable conditions applicable to the credit agreement, in particular in the form of longer duration and amount of financing and reduction of their cost.
It is also expected that ABI and Confindustria:
promote the development and dissemination of guidelines for the evaluation of residential properties, as well as the definition of similar guidelines also with reference to industrial buildings;
identify ways to promote the dissemination of best market practices that safeguard the balance between the parties and maximize the usefulness of the new guarantee;
promote the knowledge of the new guarantee instruments, possibly organizing specific events, also in collaboration with the National Council of Notaries and professional associations.
Finally, banks and businesses are committed to working together to promote the definition of further measures to make the collateral enforcement mechanism more efficient.
Rome, 12 February 2018
Source ABI Italian Banking Association
Text of the agreement reserved for customers
