The enemy is called insolvency. The inability for our companies to fail to honor and pay obligations and debts. The fate, at that point, is common to all: slipping into the group of those reported to the Central Risks of the Bank of Italy. Those to whom, to be clear, it is almost impossible to grant a loan. It is at that point that the risk of wear skyrockets. And ending up face to face with a loan shark is easier for an entrepreneur. To date, the risk is a reality for as many as 2,433 suffering companies in our province. A number that places Florence and its territory in fifth place in the risk ranking after Rome (10,827 companies), Milan (6,834), Naples (6,003) and Turin (4,605). The ranking was drawn up by the research office of the CGIA of Mestre, the association that monitors and defends the rights of artisans and small businesses. But is the future all black? Not necessarily. There is good news compared to 2023: the number of companies in bankruptcy and at risk of loan sharking has dropped by 104 units with a small collapse therefore equal to -4.1%. But more than 20% of the companies in difficulty in Tuscany (around 9,260) are Florentine.
“Those who end up on the black list – they explain from the CGIA – are unlikely to benefit from any economic help from the banking system, risking, much more than others, closing down or, even worse, slipping into the arms of loan sharks”. And what is most frightening is precisely the credit crunch: the pressure on the disbursement of credit by financial intermediaries. “After the increase that occurred during Covid – they say from the research office – which in August 2022 had raised the stock disbursed to 757.6 billion euros (on a national basis, ed.), the reduction resumed and in September of this year it is attested to 667 billion”. In Florence the situation is no different. Credit to businesses and families in our province in the second quarter of 2024 “highlights – according to the report this time from the Chamber of Commerce – a worsening trend compared to the previous quarter (from -2.2% to -3.1% )”. The result? Loan applications were more intense, but disbursements were negative with a contraction of 4.7% in the fourth quarter of 2023. The decline in credit affected small businesses more (-9.8%) than medium-large ones (- 3.8%). “It cannot be ruled out – warn the CGIA – that the closing of the taps practiced by the banking system has contributed to involuntarily pushing many self-employed people and just as many small entrepreneurs short of liquidity towards criminal organisations”.
The mirror of risk also lives in the numbers of the Tuscany Foundation for the prevention of usury, a non-profit organization which with 180 volunteers helps those who end up one step away from the usurer, putting balance sheets back on track, providing assistance and offering guarantees to banks to obtain subsidized loans up to 25 thousand euros and mortgages up to 200 thousand euros. All under the aegis of the Ministry of Finance. 18% of the requests for help come from Florence: one in three calls for over-indebtedness, 24% for a state of crisis of the company, 10% for the loss of a job. According to the CGIA, it is precisely through Foundations such as the Tuscan one, financed by the ministry fund, that the antidote to loan sharking comes. “From 1998 to 2022, the State provided 711 million euros to the Consortiums and Foundations, resources which guaranteed financing for over 2 billion euros”. Important figures which “however – according to the research office – should be implemented. The crises that have followed one another over the last 15 years have pushed many businesses to the brink of bankruptcy. If they are not helped, they risk slipping into the worst case scenario, into the net spread by those who want to take possession of it by deception.”
cla.cap
