Brussels, 27/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 26 January, the European Commission and the Italian finance ministry reached agreement on the outline of a guarantee scheme to help Italian banks sell on their non-performing loans.
The Italian scheme will help the countries banks securitise non-performing loans and transfer them to autonomous bodies. The banks will be given a state guarantee on priority (senior) instalments of the securitised loans held by these bodies. Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said that the scale of the guarantees would be set at a market rate and therefore would not constitute state aid.
The scheme aims to encourage banks to deleverage and dispose of their non-performing loans as soon as possible since the price they pay for the guarantee will rise over time. In order to ensure the price paid for the public guarantee meets market conditions, a complex calibration system will be introduced whose criteria will depend on the level of risk of a comparable securitised financial product issued in Italy and the loan maturity.
It was Italy that decided not to grant state aid. The planned scheme is unique in the EU. The Commission will use a monitoring committee to ensure proper implementation of the scheme and to ensure that it really does not involve state aid.
Italy will shortly formally notify the scheme to the Commission and the latter will officialise the agreement in a decision certifying that it does not involve state aid. (Original version in French by Elodie Lamer and Mathieu Bion)