The Director General of ABI Giovanni Sabatini and the Senior Deputy Director General, Gianfranco Torriero, took part today in the meeting convened by the Presidency of the Council and chaired by the Minister for European Affairs, the South and Cohesion Policies and the PNRR.
During the meeting, the General Manager Sabatini highlighted how the PNRR represents a unique opportunity for the nation to increase its development potential and bridge the gap between the Centre-North and the South and that the banks operating in Italy and the Association Bancaria take the commitment that this opportunity entails extremely seriously and work to contribute to the implementation of the Plan in the best possible way.
“The PNRR entrusts the banks with various tasks” said Director Sabatini “among these, in particular, the provision of guarantees to allow companies to participate in tenders; the disbursement of loans to allow the same companies to open construction sites pending public contributions or to make investments complementary to the works envisaged in the Plan; channel public incentives towards the beneficiary companies. To maximize the banks' contribution in implementing the investments connected to the PNRR, it is urgent to strengthen and expand the guarantee instruments in favor of enterprises to improve their creditworthiness, relying on the Central Guarantee Fund for SMEs, make the best use of the instruments to disburse non-repayable contributions on the model of the so-called “Nuova Sabatini” and subsidized loans, possibly associated with bank loans, taking as a model in this case the Revolving Fund for business and investment support (FRI)”.
“In order for these measures to develop their potential to the fullest” continued Sabatini “it is necessary that the various financial instruments function in a homogeneous manner according to the type of objective, avoiding the proliferation of facilitating measures with the consequent fragmentation of available resources and the greater difficulty channel the incentives towards the final beneficiaries, in times compatible with the urgency of promoting economic recovery."