From 7 years loans down to companies with less than 20 employees

Compared to the same period of the 2018, also in the month of March of this year [provisional data that also includes the securitized loans], the CGIA Studies Office reports, bank loans to small businesses have fallen by 2,3 per cent: a negative trend that for these business realities has lasted since 7 years [Bank of Italy, Annual Report on 2018, p. 95-96, Rome 31 May 2019].

The coordinator of the Paolo Zabeo Studies Office says:

"From the 2012, as emphasized by the Bank of Italy in its last Annual Report, the volume of loans to companies with less than 20 employees [In Italy, companies with less than 20 employees are 98% of the total and employ around 8 million employed. These are equal to the 56,4% of the total private sector employees] has dropped steadily. A result that is only partially attributable to the quality of the demand and the level of risk of these subjects. In fact, even at the same risk, the interest rates applied to smaller companies are on average higher than 300 base points than those required for large companies. On the other hand, the differences between the interests required of the most vulnerable micro companies with respect to the reliable ones have almost been eliminated ".

A conduct, that practiced by credit institutions with regard to small and very small companies, which reveals a very precise will. Secretary Renato Mason declares:

“When a micro-enterprise turns to a bank to obtain a loan, in the vast majority of cases the latter has a very limited economic size. If in the first instance it seems an easily solvent request, then it turns out that to draw up the preliminary investigation and provide the loan the credit institutions must assume very high fixed costs, which reduce the profit margins of this operation to a minimum. This is the reason that prompted many banks, especially at the national level, to close the credit taps to micro companies. And without liquidity, many artisans and just as many small businesses found themselves in serious difficulties ”.

Furthermore, according to the CGIA Studies Office, it cannot be excluded that following the significant decrease in credit supply in recent years, many small entrepreneurs, especially in the North, have ended up in the arms of mafia-type criminal organizations . Realities, the latter, always very willing to "help" those who are short of liquidity.

A problem that is affecting, in particular, the activities of the home sector (building contractors, painters, electricians, plumbers, plant installers, window fitters, etc.), which, with the entry into force of the "Growth Decree", are likely to suffer further economic damage.

The provisions set forth in art. 10, in fact, establish that private individuals, as an alternative to the income tax deductions of 65 and 50 per cent, can transfer the tax relief to the company to which they have entrusted the works of energy requalification and / or reduction of seismic risk, taking advantage of a very generous discount on the bill to honor.

If on the one hand this decision can forcefully restart the economy of the home sector, since it allows the client to benefit from a discount of 50 per cent on the amount due, on the other it risks penalizing the companies that have made

the intervention, given that they will be able to collect half of the consideration through the tax compensation within the following 5 years.

It is clear that a large company can cope with this mechanism, but those who do not have liquidity, like the vast majority of artisan companies in the construction and plant installation sectors, risk having to give up the order, not being able to support, and anticipate , a good part of the expenses necessary to carry out the work.

Consequently, the companies that will take on this burden will be able to afford to present themselves to the customer and propose this solution, while the small artisans will be discouraged from suggesting this measure, with the danger of being ousted from the market.

For this reason the CGIA in recent days has sent a note to the Authority of the Guarantor and Market Competition, signaling that this new law creates discrimination between competing economic operators, benefiting those of larger dimensions and high financial capacity, altering the dynamics of the market , with the effect of restricting the supply possibilities for final consumers.

A decision that, if not modified, risks putting the home sector in serious difficulty, counting in Italy just over 625 thousand companies, about 70 per cent with a high artisan vocation, among painters, building contractors, installers, electricians and plumbers. The 2018 estimates tell us that building renovations and energy redevelopment interventions have generated investments incentivized by tax deductions of almost 29 billion, involving almost 427 thousand employees.

From 7 years loans down to companies with less than 20 employees

| Economics |