Venice, 16 September 2016 – The fifth edition of the International NPL Meeting, the most important conference in Italy on non-performing loans, was held in Venice today. Over 500 people, including investment funds, banks, servicers and other professionals in the field from all over the world took part in this day rich in discussions and issues related to impaired loans. Roberto Nicastro (President of the four ‘good banks’), Paolo Petrignani (Fondo Atlante), Davide Serra (Algebris) and Claudio Corsini (former C.E.O. of REV) were amongst the professionals taking part.
In addition to these participants, some of the most important European and American funds, protagonists in the NPL world, also took part in the round tables of the day, namely Arrow Global, Hoist Finance, AnaCap, Blackstone, PRA, Cerberus, Kruk and Lindorff. Also participating were banks – Unicredit (Jose Brena) and Intesa Sanpaolo (Carlo Viola), insurance and credit rating agencies – Cattolica, Generali, Moody’s and DBRS, and, lastly, the digital exchange platforms for British and American NPL portfolios – Tdx, Debtx and Aspen.
“Response from investors is not to be taken for granted” commented Giovanni Bossi, Banca IFIS’s C.E.O., who went on to say: “Even if deals were to increase five-fold between now and 2017, the volumes would still not be sufficient enough to solve the problem of Italian banks’ non-performing loans. What is needed is a quantum leap in the management of impaired assets. The financial capacity already exists; investors’ interest is connected to institutes’ willingness to render their assets transparent and to not be intransigent about prices.”
In response to the question of ‘How to fill the gap’ between purchase and selling prices, the speakers answered precisely. To fill this gap, we need:
- Investments in the skills needed to manage banks’ NPLs effectively;
- Better quality of documentation and portfolio segmentation;
- Shorter credit recovery times;
- Improved technology for credit recovery;
- More planning;
- Creation of joint ventures between banks and specialized structures;
- Revival of the property market.
Materials and pictures from the conference ara available at NPL Meeting website at the pages “Materials” and “Gallery” respectively.
