Credit Guarantee Corporations are structures which, operating on the basis of the principles of mutuality and solidarity, offer guarantees for aiding companies in accessing loans (short, medium and long term) in the development of economic and productive activities.
Established in the ‘50s in the handicraft sector, over the decades the activity of the CGCs has steadily developed, and recently they have assumed an increasingly crucial role in lessening the impact of the crisis for craftsmen and small companies with regard to access to credit.
In this context, for its size, structure and capacity for intervention, Eurofidi represents not only one of the largest Italian CGCs but also one of the most important guarantee entities worldwide.
In 2013 its associate companies were almost 55 thousand, with the total loans paid out by the banking system amounting to almost 7.0 billion euro (2.4 billion in 2013 alone) and guarantees issued by Eurofidi for 3.7 billion euro (1.5 billion last year).
In 2011 KPMG, one of the most important companies offering professional services to businesses, conducted an international survey on the leading players of the guarantee market. In the study "Credit Access Guarantees: a Public Asset between State and Market", Eurofidi was among the nine big player worldwide, the only Italian CGC to achieve such a position.
Eurofidi as Financial Intermediary
In 2010, through registration in the special list referred to in Article 107 of the Consolidated Banking Law, Eurofidi gained the status of regulated financial intermediary, i.e. an organism controlled by Banca d’Italia. Guarantees issued by ‘Eurofidi Financial Intermediary’ have special value:
- for companies, since it is able to transmit the recognition granted by Banca d’Italia to the guaranteed party, allowing it to extend its credit access capacity;
- for banks, which are generally able to reduce the absorption of capital and benefit from a more sound and structured guarantor.
As an additional benefit to both companies and banks, moreover, Eurofidi’s process of adaptation in transforming into a financial intermediary has resulted in greater efficiency in its decision-making process and a reduction in the time required for processing cases.
Eurofidi is at the centre of the so-called guarantee chain. Acting as an ‘accessible local branch’, it provides a competent and efficient service for both SMEs and credit institutions. Thanks to its deep-rooted local presence, in fact, its knowledge of the companies is extensive and direct. In this context, Eurofidi supports an anti-cyclical credit policy, to provide the manufacturing sector with financial means to tackle the complex new economic environment. To this end, not only does Eurofidi deal with ‘new loans’ geared to investments, but it also grants new guarantees on existing credit lines. This includes the following:
- renewal with an increase in short-term credit lines (renewal of maturing lines);
- consolidation (transformation of short-term credit lines into loans);
- renegotiation (granting of new loans replacing existing loans, for the purpose of reducing the instalment amount by extending the life of the loan payable by the company).