In the last 10 years the number of extortion reports has increased by 77,2 percent. A real boom. If in absolute terms in the 2006 there were 5.400 reports to the police, in the 2016 (last year in which data are available) have reached 9.568 quota. Threshold, the latter, however, decreasing 2,7 percentage points compared to the result recorded in the 2015. To say it is the Study Office of the CGIA.
“Extortions - affirms the coordinator of the Studies Office Paolo Zabeo - are crimes often committed by mafia-type organizations against entrepreneurs. In addition to illegally acquiring money through harassment, retaliation or threats, the goal of these criminals is to exercise strong control of the territory. The sharp increase in complaints, however, presents different interpretations. One of these is also attributable to the victims' newfound confidence in the police. Especially in the North, where only a few decades ago the productive fabric of this area began to know this criminal phenomenon ".
According to the data of Transcrime (Research Center of the Catholic University of Milan), the CGIA Studies Office is aware, the overall turnover of the Italian extortion is estimated to fluctuate between 2,7 and 7,7 billion euros per year .
At a regional level, the growth trend in complaints recorded between 2010 and 2016 mainly affected the Northeast regions: with the exception of Valle d'Aosta (+533,3 percent), in Trentino Alto Adige (+188 percent) and in Emilia Romagna (+ 179,7 per cent) the most important changes occurred.
Although they are much more contained (in the 2016 the reports nationwide were 408), the phenomenon of usury should not be underestimated either.
“With only the complaints made to the judicial authorities - declares the Secretary Renato Mason - it is not possible to measure the phenomenon of usury. Unfortunately, the reports are very few. However, attention must not be lowered, because as experts on this phenomenon know, it is very difficult for victims to find the strength to report their loan sharks. In addition to the effects of the crisis that we have suffered in recent years, the credit crunch practiced by banks against entrepreneurs has caused a negative impact, a phenomenon that unfortunately continues today ”.
As for extortion, the regional data on complaints for usury also see the Northeast, and especially Emilia Romagna, among the most affected: between 2010 and 2016 the percentage change in the region led by Governor Bonaccini increased by over 266 points. Followed by Calabria (+100 percent) and Marche (+85,7 percent).
One of the causes that probably pushed many small traders and artisans into the arms of the usurers is the persistence of the credit crunch practiced by banks for entrepreneurs.
Compared to the end of June 2011, the total amount of bank loans to businesses in the same month of this year was almost € 217 billion lower. Non-performing loans to companies are still high (101 billion euros at the end of June 2018), despite the fact that in the last year there has been a massive sale of problem loans (almost 56 billion euros of securitisations and disposals relating to non-financial companies) which thus came out of bank balance sheets, disappearing from bad loans and loans statistics.
In recent months, as indicated by the Bank of Italy on 9 August 2018, the credit situation would have improved however: in June the amount of loans to non-financial companies (companies with more than 5 employees) has grown by 0,6 per cent (the figure takes into account the securitization and other loans transferred / canceled from bank balance sheets and is constructed on the basis of variation rates on the previous 12 months).
However, it remains evident that compared to before the second wave of economic crisis (which began in the autumn of 2011), the credit available to businesses is, at the end of June 2018, lower than at least 20 per cent. And looking at live loans, or at performing loans (loans net of bad debts), between late 2011 and 2018 at the end of June there are almost X billion euro less. And where credit is less, wear is always there.
