(Finance) – The Bank of Italy will continue, throughout 2024, to lend money to banks, also accepting as collateral loans granted to families in the form of consumer credits and mortgages or those to small and medium-sized businesses. This is what the central institute announced in a note. Although last November 30, 2023 the Governing Council of the European Central Bank has decided to revoke some measures in force in the schemes relating to additional bank loans (Additional Credit Claims, Acc) adopted over time by various national central banks of the Eurosystem, the Bank of Italy reports that this decision does not modify the Acc scheme of the Bank of Italy itself, which “will remain in force at least until the end of 2024”. Any subsequent changes will in any case be communicated well in advance.
The objective is to increase the ability of banks to support the real economy also by accepting as collateral “credits that do not satisfy all the eligibility criteria established in the general Eurosystem guarantee system” as the ECB explained at the time. The Bank of Italy has also decided to reintroduce the minimum amount threshold of 25 thousand euros requested at the time of assignment as collateral for domestic loans individually assigned both on the basis of the ordinary guarantee regime and on the basis of the Acc schemes, in line with the decision of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank. This threshold, we read, had been reduced to zero in the context of the measures on guarantees adopted in response to the economic and financial crisis caused by the Coronavirus pandemic. The date of entry into force of the new threshold it will be communicated during 2024, on the occasion of the publication of the amendments to the legal documents relating to the implementation of monetary policy.
THE additional credits they can also understand household loans and similar loan packages, for example loans to businesses (small, medium and large), consumer loans or mortgages. To compensate for the resulting greater risks, national central banks impose higher haircuts and thus assign additional credits a valuation lower than the nominal value in order to have a safety margin against possible changes in the value of the collateral. In its scheme, the Bank of Italy accepts as collateral the loans backed by the guarantees introduced by the decree to deal with the Covid-19 emergency, issued by Sace and from Guarantee Fund for SMEsgranted within the loan portfolios disbursed to non-financial companies.