Following the conversion of the "Aid" decree, ABI President Antonio Patuelli and General Manager Giovanni Sabatini immediately wrote to the Prime Minister, the Minister of Economy and Finance, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, to the Minister of Economic Development, the Undersecretary for European Affairs and the European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs so that they can take all the necessary steps to obtain quickly the release by the European Commission of the authorizations to allow the issuance of coverage on bank loans by Sace and the Guarantee Fund for SMEs.
The "Aid" Decree in fact, among other things, provided for new measures to facilitate access to liquidity by companies damaged by the economic consequences of Russia's aggression against Ukraine, within the recent Temporary Framework on State aid, defined by the European Commission to address the new crisis situation.
In this regard, however, Italian companies cannot yet take advantage of these subsidy measures as, two months after the enactment of the Decree-law, there is still no authorization from the European Commission.
It is necessary that the public guarantees, provided for by art. 15 and 16 of the “Aid” Decree, are immediately available, also considering that the possibility for their release will close at the end of 2022, according to the provisions of the law and the Temporary European Framework on State Aid currently in force.
Furthermore, for the President and General Manager of ABI, it is absolutely necessary that, with the authorization of the European Commission, Sace's operations can finally start, in accordance with the provisions of art. 17 of the “Aid” Decree; among other things, this would favor the disbursement of bank loans on longer maturities, compared to the provisions of the Temporary Framework, reducing the burden of financial charges for companies.
Furthermore, in order to free up resources in the balance sheets of banks to provide new credit to businesses, it is equally urgent and necessary for the European Commission to issue the authorization for the extension of the guarantee scheme on securitizations on impaired loans (the so-called GACS) expired in June of the current year.