Financing SMEs and Entrepreneurs 2022

22. Italy

Key facts on SME financing

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) account for the vast majority of Italian firms, providing nearly 80% of the industrial and service labour force and generating about two-thirds of turnover and value added.

The impact of the pandemic led to disruptions in business activity and liquidity shortages. Credit markets were buttressed by the ECB’s expansionary monetary policy measures, flanked by the financial support initiatives adopted by the Government. Lending increased at a sustained pace for large enterprises and, after many years of contraction, also for small companies.

Lending standards remained broadly relaxed in 2020. Business borrowing rates stood at low levels, and collateral requirements declined, partly as a result of the widespread recourse to public guarantee schemes.

Credit quality improved further, benefitting from the financial support measures adopted by the Government after the outbreak of the pandemic. The ratio of SME new non-performing loans to outstanding loans reached the lowest level in fifteen years. The stock of non-performing exposures dropped significantly, as a result of their further disposal during the pandemic.

Equity financing for SMEs, provided in the form of early stage and expansion capital, increased moderately, entirely driven by a sustained growth in the early stage segment; by contrast, resources devoted to large firms decreased markedly, after remaining virtually unchanged in the previous year.

Business-to-business payment delays, on a declining path after the sharp upswing recorded during the global financial crisis, started rising again at the outbreak of the health emergency; payment patterns returned close to pre-pandemic levels at the end of 2020.

Bankruptcies dropped for the sixth year in a row, down by more than 30% with respect to 2019: the sharp decline can be partly explained by the moratorium on insolvencies and the slowdown in court activity due to the pandemic containment measures.

The Government unleashed a broad policy effort to counter the unprecedented challenges faced by SMEs during the pandemic through a wide range of financial support measures. These initiatives, originally focused on liquidity relief, were progressively matched by broader recovery packages.

Credit guarantee schemes have traditionally played a crucial role in easing SME access to finance. During the pandemic the Central Guarantee Fund was further strengthened, by widening the range of potential beneficiaries, raising the coverage ratios of loans, increasing capital endowments and simplifying procedures. The State guarantee system was boosted by giving SACE, the Italian export credit agency whose tasks were redefined, the role of providing public guarantees to large firms; the initiative was also extended to SMEs that had exhausted their ability to access the Central Guarantee Fund.

Other provisions included the roll-out of a debt moratorium to help firms cope with temporary liquidity shortages due to the abrupt fall in production. This measure allowed SMEs to obtain the freezing of uncommitted credit facilities, an extension on maturing loans, and the suspension of instalment payments.

The emergency measures were later flanked by more selective initiatives, aimed at avoiding imbalances in the financial structure of firms. Measures aimed at encouraging a greater inflow of equity into the productive system envisaged a wide range of instruments to strengthen capitalisation and promote the recovery of economic activity.

Table 22.1. Scoreboard for Italy

Indicator	Unit	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
Debt
Outstanding business loans, SMEs	EUR billion	187	191	193	210	206	204	196	192	188	175	170	166	160	168
Outstanding business loans, total	EUR billion	998	1067	1057	1122	1134	1118	1061	1025	1016	985	960	961	931	984
Share of SME outstanding loans	% of total business loans	18.7	17.9	18.3	18.7	18.2	18.2	18.5	18.7	18.5	17.8	17.7	17.3	17.2	17.1
Short-term loans, SMEs	EUR billion	59	56	52	50	48	47	42	39	35	31	28	27	26	19
Long-term loans, SMEs	EUR billion	115	120	125	136	133	128	122	115	112	103	101	100	97	114
Total short and long-term loans, SMEs	EUR billion	174	177	177	186	181	175	164	155	147	134	130	127	123	133
Share of short-term loans, SMEs	% of total short and long-term SME loans	34.0	31.9	29.3	26.9	26.4	26.6	25.7	25.3	23.8	22.9	22.0	21.3	21.0	14.0
Direct government loans, SMEs	EUR million	337	373	255	276	272	252	390	597	392	418	431	671	540	1 187
Government guaranteed loans, SMEs (CGF)	EUR million, flows	2 300	2 353	4 914	9 119	8 378	8 190	10 811	12 935	15 065	16 703	17 462	19 314	19 376	124 387
Government loan guarantees, SMEs (CGF)	EUR million, flows	1 146	1 160	2 756	5 225	4 435	4 036	6 414	8 392	10 216	11 570	12 260	13 731	13 342	105 921
Non-performing loans, SMEs	EUR million	..	22 866	27 953	35 247	38 042	43 814	48 384	53 726	56 199	54 959	50 614	47 422	45 583	42 468
Non-performing loans, SMEs	% of total SME loans	..	12.0	14.5	16.8	18.4	21.5	24.6	28.0	30.0	31.4	29.9	28.6	28.4	25.2
Interest rate, SMEs	%	6.3	6.3	3.6	3.7	5.0	5.6	5.4	4.4	3.8	3.2	3.1	3.1	3.4	2.4
Interest rate, large firms	%	5.7	4.9	2.2	2.2	3.3	3.8	3.4	2.6	2.1	1.8	1.8	1.8	1.7	1.6
Interest rate spread	%	0.6	1.4	1.4	1.5	1.7	1.8	2.0	1.8	1.7	1.4	1.3	1.3	1.7	0.8
Collateral, SMEs	%	54	54	52	53	55	54	56	56	57	58	58	57	57	53
Rejection rate	% of firms reporting that they had not obtained some or all of the credit requested	3.1	8.2	6.9	5.7	11.3	12.0	8.9	8.4	6.0	4.0	4.2	4.6	4.1	6.1
Utilisation rate	SME loans used / authorised	79.7	80.7	80.7	82.8	84.2	86.3	87.0	87.4	87.1	85.0	84.7	85.1	84.4	83.1
Non-bank finance
Venture capital investments (early stage), SMEs	EUR million	66	115	98	89	82	135	82	43	74	103	133	324	270	355
Growth capital investments (expansion), SMEs	EUR million	295	440	260	263	500	504	438	230	170	155	161	125	143	133
Growth capital investments (expansion), total	EUR million	641	796	371	583	674	926	914	1179	333	710	337	816	896	354
Other indicators
Payment delays, B2B (all firms)	Average number of days	..	20.4	21.3	17.3	16.2	17.5	17.3	16.1	15.0	13.4	12.3	12.2	12.4	13.4
Bankruptcies, total	Number	5 986	7 331	9 222	11 120	12 039	12 450	14 054	15 635	14 694	13 481	12 015	11 203	11 096	7.647
Bankruptcies, total	%, Year-on-year growth rate	..	22.5	25.8	20.6	8.3	3.4	12.9	11.2	-6.0	-8.3	-10.9	-6.8	-1.0	-31.1
Incidence of insolvency, total	per 10 000 enterprises	11.5	13.7	17.0	20.3	21.6	22.0	25.0	27.9	26.4	24.1	21.5	20.0	19.7	13.4

Source: See Table 22.5.

SMEs in the national economy

Small and medium-sized enterprises account for 99.9% of Italian firms; the share of micro-firms hovers around 95% (See Table 23.2). In 2019, SMEs employed around 80% of the industrial and service labour force and generated about two-thirds of turnover and value added (see Figure 23.2).

Table 22.2. Distribution of firms in Italy, 2019

Firm size (employees)	Total active enterprises1		Of which according to the SBS Regulation (No 295/2008)2
	Number	%	Number	%
All firms	4 208 979	100	3 593 589	100
SMEs (up to 249)	4 204 922	99.9	3 589 948	99.9
Micro (up to 9)	3 990 961	94.8	3 391 286	94.4
Small (10-49)	190 775	4.5	177 749	4.9
Medium (50-249)	23 186	0.6	20 913	0.6
Large (250+)	4 057	0.1	3 641	0.1

Note: 1. Financial and insurance activities are excluded. 2. Data include all market activities in Sections B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, L, M, N of the common statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community as established by Regulation (EC) No 1893/2006 (Nace Rev. 2). Data include firms with and without employees.

Source: Istat.

Figure 22.1. Firms, turnover and value added in Italy, 2019

As a percentage

Source: Istat.

Statlink

Box 22.1. Definition of SMEs used in Italy’s SME and Entrepreneurship Finance Scoreboard

Country definition

In accordance with Eurostat standards, the Italian National Institute of Statistics defines small and medium enterprises the firms with fewer than 250 employees. In detail, micro-enterprises and small firms have, respectively, less than 10 and 10-49 employees, while medium-sized enterprises are defined as those with 50-249 employees.

The SME definition used by financial institutions

The Bank of Italy classifies data on business lending by firm size: small firms are defined as limited partnerships, general partnerships, informal partnerships, de facto companies and sole proprietorships with fewer than 20 workers. This data disaggregation has been used for most indicators on the debt side.

SME lending

After posting a virtually nil growth in 2019, the Italian economy was hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic during the subsequent year, recording a sharp decline in GDP. The uncertainty surrounding the cyclical phase translated into a sharp resizing of firms’ investment plans.

Disruptions in business activity and declining cash flows led to liquidity shortages, largely met by the increased credit availability, spurred by the ECB’s expansionary monetary policy stance and by the swift adoption of public support measures. Amidst supportive lending conditions, bank debt increased at a sustained pace since March 2020, first for medium-sized and large firms and, since June, after many years of contraction, even for small companies. The increase in credit was more marked for large enterprises. The share of SME loans in total business loans decreased slightly to 17.1 per cent, the lowest level since 2007. Loan maturities further shifted from short-term to long-term lending, likely reflecting the opportunity to access public guarantees and the need to cope with the uncertainty surrounding the economic outlook.

Figure 22.2. Lending in Italy, 2017-21

Year-on-year change, as a percentage

Source: Bank of Italy.

Statlink

Credit conditions

Credit supply policies remained broadly relaxed in 2020, continuing the trend shown in the second part of the previous year. According to the euro-area bank lending survey, which gathers supply-side information about the changes in Italian banks’ credit standards for approving loans or credit lines, terms and conditions in lending supply to firms remained loose throughout the year also thanks to the favourable effects of the public guarantee schemes and monetary policy support.

Figure 22.3. Credit conditions for SMEs and large firms in Italy, 2007-21

Diffusion index

Note: SMEs have annual net turnover up to EUR 50 million. The dates reported in the table coincide with the month following the quarter covered by the survey.

Source: Euro area Bank Lending Survey.

Statlink

However, access to credit was affected somewhat by the pandemic. The survey on Industrial and Service Firms carried out by the Bank of Italy points out that the SME rejection rate rose to 6.1 per cent, half the peak recorded in 2012 but 2 percentage points higher than a year earlier.

Business borrowing rates reached the lowest level since 2007, also bolstered by the highly accommodative stance of monetary policy. As the cost of credit held virtually unchanged for large enterprises, the interest rate spread between average SME and large firm rate plummeted to 0.8 per cent.

Collateral requirements remained stable prior to the crisis: in 2020 SME loans backed by real guarantees fell to 53 per cent, down from the average level of 57 per cent recorded over the last four years. The extensive use of public guarantee schemes contributed to this trend.

Credit quality improved further in 2020, benefitting from moratoria and guarantees on new loans introduced by the Government after the outbreak of the pandemic and the flexibility allowed under the rules for classifying loans, as indicated by the supervisory authorities. The ratio of SME new non-performing loans (NPLs, which include bad debts) to outstanding loans reached the lowest level in fifteen years (see Figure 23.4). The stock of non-performing exposures dropped considerably, due to their further disposal during the pandemic.

Figure 22.4. Ratio of new NPLs to outstanding loans in Italy, 2007-21

Quarterly flows of NPLs as a percentage of the stock of performing loans at the end of the previous quarter

Source: Bank of Italy.

Statlink

Alternative sources of SME financing

Total early stage and expansion capital investments plummeted by nearly 40 per cent in 2020, after remaining unchanged in the previous year (see Table 23.3). Resources directed to small and medium-sized firms increased moderately, entirely driven by a sustained growth in the early stage segment and an increase in investment in technology transfer, which more than offset the drop in expansion capital resources.

Table 22.3. Early stage and expansion capital in Italy, 2007-20

In EUR million

	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
0-9	110	111	99	141	95	156	290	61	117	75	54	102	96	151
10-19	39	121	30	24	35	29	26	7	8	19	13	27	72	55
20-99	80	243	136	113	182	326	116	189	97	63	179	302	145	240
100-199	114	57	65	73	212	62	65	15	19	102	32	16	95	36
200-249	18	24	28	2	59	65	23	1	4	1	16	2	5	6
SMEs sub-total	361	556	358	352	582	639	520	273	244	259	294	449	413	488
250-499	52	98	19	27	24	50	195	43	44	80	81	159	3	62
500-999	114	65	26	12	48	123	67	218	10	5	15	404	52	51
1 000-4 999	180	27	66	268	100	205	94	587	109	10	80	48	449	131
>5 000	-	165	-	14	3	44	120	101	-	459	-	80	250	0
Total	707	911	469	672	756	1 061	996	1 222	407	813	470	1 140	1 167	731

Source: AIFI-PwC.

Access to the stock market, though still limited, broadened in recent years. However, in 2020 initial public offerings (IPOs) were less numerous than those planned at the beginning of the year and those carried out before the pandemic. SME listings mostly occurred on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM Italia), a second tier market with simplified admission procedures.

Online financing channels, albeit restricted in volumes, continued to grow at a sustained pace. Equity crowdfunding – originally intended for start-ups and later extended to innovative SMEs – now enables all SMEs to raise capital through dedicated online platforms: in the twelve months ending in June 2020, alternative financing flows for SMEs amounted to EUR 76.6 million, up by more than 50 per cent over the previous period. Lending crowdfunding provided EUR 179.6 million, more than double compared to the previous year.

Other indicators

After a sharp upswing recorded during the global financial crisis, payment delays started declining in subsequent years. The trend reversed during the lockdown, and then returned close to pre-pandemic levels at the end of the year. According to Payline database, which tracks the commercial transactions of over three million Italian businesses, the widespread increase of the indicator was more marked for micro firms (14.6 days, up from 13.0 in 2019) than for SMEs and large businesses (10.9 and 15.0 days respectively, up from 9.7 and 14.5; see Table 23.4).

Table 22.4. Payment delays in Italy, 2008-20

Average number of days

		2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
Payment delays, micro-firms	Average number of days	15.7	17.0	16.9	15.7	17.3	16.4	15.7	15.0	13.7	12.9	13.0	13.0	14.6
Payment delays, SMEs	Average number of days	13.3	15.2	13.1	11.6	12.7	13.1	12.5	11.4	9.8	9.1	9.3	9.7	10.9
Payment delays, large firms	Average number of days	22.7	23.5	19.1	18.2	20.3	19.6	18.8	18.4	16.6	15.1	14.7	14.5	15.0

Source: Cerved, Payline database.

Bankruptcies fell for the sixth year in a row since the onset of the global financial crisis: 7 647 Italian companies went out of business in 2020, down by more than 30 per cent on the preceding year. The incidence of insolvencies dropped again to 13.4 per 10 000 enterprises. The sharp decline in the number of business failures, the highest recorded in more than a decade, can be partly explained by the moratorium on bankruptcies, in force from the beginning of March to the end of June, and the general slowdown in court activity due to the pandemic containment measures.

Figure 22.5. Bankruptcies in Italy, 2007-20

Number; year-on-year change

Source: Cerved.

Statlink

Government policy response

The Government launched a broad and comprehensive action plan to mitigate the effects of the pandemic on the productive system. The measures to support access to credit focused on public loan guarantee programmes, at first with the Decree Law 18/2020, converted into Law 27/2020 (“Cure Italy” Decree) and then with the Decree Law 23/2020, converted into Law 40/2020 (“Liquidity Decree”), aimed at the majority of Italian companies; liquidity relief was ensured by ex lege and private moratoria.

The strengthening of the Central Guarantee Fund for SMEs has allowed:

a. the eligibility of mid-caps (250-499 employees) and of firms with less balanced financial conditions, while in any case excluding firms with exposures classified as bad loans;

b. the increase in the maximum amount guaranteed per firm from EUR 2.5 million to EUR 5 million;

c. the provision of the guarantee at no charge;

d. the rise of the coverage to 90 per cent for all loans with pre-set characteristics in terms of maturity and maximum amount;

e. the automatic granting, i.e. without prior authorization on the part of the Fund, of loans of less than EUR 25,000 (now increased to EUR 30,000), fully covered by the state-backed guarantee;

f. the elimination of the creditworthiness assessment by the Fund;

g. the access to the instrument for individuals whose businesses were damaged by the health emergency;

h. the extension of the intervention – under certain conditions – to debt rescheduling.

Figure 22.6. The activity of the Central Guarantee Fund for SMEs in Italy, 2007-20

Flows, in EUR million

Source: MedioCredito Centrale.

Statlink

Subsequent legislative provisions have progressively increased the Fund’s endowment; the duration of the measure, of a temporary nature, has been extended several times; lastly, at the time of writing, Decree Law 73/2021 (‘Support-bis”) has prolonged the deadline of the extraordinary operations of the Fund, formerly set for 31 December 2020, to 31 December 2021. As envisaged by the 2021 Budget Law (Law 178/2020), access to the Fund for mid-caps has expired on 28 February; these firms can now tap the ‘Guarantee Italy’ programme delivered by SACE until the end of the year. This choice aims at bringing the Central Guarantee Fund back to its original support mission for SMEs.

The State guarantee system has been strengthened by giving SACE, whose tasks have been redefined, the role of providing public guarantees with coverage percentages that decrease from 90 to 70 per cent as firm size increases. The initiative, aimed at large firms, has also been extended to SMEs that have exhausted their ability to access the Central Guarantee Fund. At the time of writing, Decree Law 73/2021 (‘Support-bis”) has extended the initiative until 31 December 2021.

Article 56 of the “Cure Italy” Decree has introduced a debt moratorium for SMEs that have no debts classified as non-performing at the date of entry into force of the decree but that are facing a temporary liquidity shortage owing to the COVID-19 crisis, attested by self-declaration. Specifically, it was initially envisaged to: (a) freeze the amounts authorized for revocable credit lines and for loans granted against advances on receivables until 30 September 2020; (b) defer until 30 September 2020 the repayment of loans maturing prior to that date; (c) suspend mortgage instalments and lease payments during the same period. This initiative has been extended several times, most recently by Decree Law 73/2021 but only for the capital share.

The ex lege measure has been accompanied by the private moratorium promoted by the Italian Banking Association, which allows participating banks and financial intermediaries to suspend loan instalments up to one year and lengthen their maturity by extending the measure ‘Imprese in Ripresa 2.0’ to the operations outstanding as of 31 January 2020 for companies affected by the crisis. The initiative has been revised several times to extend its duration, the number of beneficiaries and the scope of operations, by including firms that had no debt classified as non-performing as of 3 January 2020 (while excluding those with exposures classified as bad loans) and prolonging the suspension period up to 24 months for companies operating in sectors or production chains most affected by the pandemic.

The emergency measures, designed to support the companies affected by the consequences of the pandemic, were later flanked by more selective initiatives, aimed at encouraging investment and capitalisation of firms. In particular, Decree Law 34/2020, converted into Law 77/2020 (the ‘Relaunch’ Decree), has introduced a new major package of initiatives to support the economic activity, such as straight grants to certain categories of firms with turnover not exceeding EUR 5 million, provided that they recorded a 33 per cent decrease in turnover in April 2020 compared to the same month of the previous year; fiscal incentives for equity investment in non-financial firms with revenues between EUR 5 and 50 million; a subordinated loan scheme (‘Fondo Patrimonio PMI’) for medium-sized enterprises that have approved and executed a fully paid capital increase not lower than EUR 250,000.

Figure 22.7. Trends in SME and entrepreneurship finance in Italy

Source: See Table 22.5.

Statlink

Table 22.5. Definitions and sources of indicators for Italy's scoreboard

Indicator	Definition	Source
Debt
Business loans, total	Outstanding loans (stocks, including repos) by banks and other financial institutions. For bank loans: bad loans including factoring from Q408. For other financial intermediaries’ loans: bad loans including factoring. As of June 2010, loans include securitised, or otherwise transferred, loans.	Bank of Italy, Supervisory returns (for bank loans) and Central Credit Register (for other financial intermediaries loans; subject to reporting threshold: as of January 2009, the reporting threshold for loans and guarantees, which was previously set to EUR 75 000, has been lowered to EUR 30 000; no threshold applies for reporting bad loans); supply side data sets
Business loans, SMEs	Outstanding loans (stocks, including repos) by banks and other financial institutions. For bank loans: bad loans including factoring from Q408. For other financial intermediaries’ loans: bad loans including factoring. As of June 2010, loans include securitised, or otherwise transferred, loans.	Bank of Italy, Supervisory returns (for bank loans) and Central Credit Register (for other financial intermediaries loans; subject to reporting threshold)
Short-term loans, SMEs	Loans (including repos); maturity up to 12 months (up to 18 months until Q308 for data drawn from supervisory returns and until Q109 for data drawn from the Central Credit Register).	Bank of Italy, Supervisory returns (for bank loans) and Central Credit Register (for other financial intermediaries loans; subject to reporting threshold)
Long-term loans, SMEs	Loans (including repos); maturity more than 12 months (more than 18 months until Q308 for data drawn from supervisory returns and until Q109 for data drawn from the Central Credit Register).	Bank of Italy, Supervisory returns (for bank loans) and Central Credit Register (for other financial intermediaries loans; subject to reporting threshold)
Direct government loans, SMEs	Sum of direct loans granted to SMEs (firms with less than 250 employees) by the Italian government.	Ministry of Economic Development
Government guaranteed loans, CGF	Government guaranteed loans to SMEs (firms with less than 250 employees) by the Central Guarantee Fund.	Central Guarantee Fund – MedioCredito Centrale (MCC)
Government loan guarantees, CGF	Government loan guarantees to SMEs (firms with less than 250 employees) by the Central Guarantee Fund.	Central Guarantee Fund – MedioCredito Centrale (MCC)
Non-performing loans, SMEs	Bank and other intermediaries’ non-performing loans. Non-performing loans include bad loans, unlikely to pay, and non-performing past-due and/or overdrawn exposures. From 2010 bad loans include securitisations. For bank non-performing loans: including factoring from Q408. For other financial intermediaries’, non-performing loans including factoring.	Bank of Italy, Supervisory returns (for bank non-performing loans) and Central Credit Register (for other financial intermediaries non-performing loans).
Interest rate, average SME rate	Annual Percentage Rate of Charge (i.e. including fees and commissions) on new term loans.	Bank of Italy, AnaCredit, for 2019. Data refer to the interest rates charged to non-bank customers for the following transactions: credit lines other than revolving credit, reverse repurchase agreements, finance leases, other loans. The reporting threshold equals or exceeds EUR 25 000. Bank of Italy, Survey of lending rates, for 2007-2018. The survey refers to the rates charged to non-bank customers for the following transactions: matched loans, term loans and revocable loans, provided the sum of the amounts of the above forms of financing granted or used reported to the Central Credit Register equals or exceeds EUR 75 000.
Interest rate spread (between average SME and large firm rate)	Spread between average interest rate charged to SMEs and large firms. Annual figures taken from fourth quarter of the respective year.	Bank of Italy, AnaCredit, for 2019. Bank of Italy, Survey of lending rates, for 2007-2018.
Collateral, SMEs	Percentage of SME bank and other financial intermediaries’ loans backed by real guarantees.	Central Credit Register, subject to reporting threshold
Rejection rate, SMEs	Percentage of SMEs (defined as firms with 20-249 employees) reporting they did not obtain the requested amount in full.	Bank of Italy, Survey of Industrial and Service Firms
Loans authorised, SMEs	Sum of the loan facilities granted to each borrower by all the intermediaries reporting to the Central Credit Register.	Bank of Italy, Central Credit Register (subject to reporting threshold)
Loans used, SMEs	Sum of the loan facilities disbursed to each borrower by all the intermediaries reporting to the Central Credit Register.	Bank of Italy, Central Credit Register (subject to reporting threshold)
Non-bank finance
Venture capital investments (seed and early stage), SMEs	Amounts invested in SMEs (defined as firms with less than 250 employees). Data include seed and early stage.	A I F I – Italian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association; supply-side survey
Growth capital investments (expansion), SMEs	Amounts invested in SMEs (defined as firms with less than 250 employees). Data include expansion phase, not turnaround or buyout/ replacement stages.	A I F I – Italian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association; supply-side survey
Growth capital investments (expansion), total	Amounts invested in firms of all sizes. Data include expansion phase, not turnaround or buyout/ replacement stages.	A I F I – Italian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association; supply-side survey
Other indicators
Payment delays, all firms	Average payment delay in days for business-to-business, all firms.	Cerved, Payline database
Payment delays, micro-firms	Average payment delay in days for business-to-business, micro-firms (defined as firms with turnover of less than EUR 2 million and less than 10 employees).	Cerved, Payline database
Payment delays, SMEs	Average payment delay in days for business-to-business, SMEs [defined as firms with turnover between EUR 2 million and EUR 50 million (or with assets between EUR 2 million and EUR 43 million) and between 10 and 249 employees].	Cerved, Payline database
Payment delays, large firms	Average payment delays in days for business-to-business, large firms [defined as firms with turnover exceeding EUR 50 million (or with assets exceeding 43 million) and at least 250 employees].	Cerved, Payline database
Bankruptcies, total	The judicial procedure through which the property of an insolvent entrepreneur is removed and destined to the equal satisfaction of the creditors. The bankruptcy closing is declared by the court with a justified decree, on the request of the trustee, the creditor or also officially. The closing decree could be claimed within 15 days, in front of the Court of Appeal, from every admitted creditor. All enterprises.	Cerved

References

Bank of Italy (2020a), Annual Report for 2019, Ordinary Meeting of Shareholders, Rome. https://www.bancaditalia.it/pubblicazioni/relazione-annuale/2019/en_rel_2019.pdf?language_id=1

Bank of Italy (2020b), Financial Stability Report, November 2020, Rome. https://www.bancaditalia.it/pubblicazioni/rapporto-stabilita/2020-2/en_FSR_2-2020.pdf?language_id=1

Bank of Italy (2021a), Financial Stability Report, April 2021, Rome. https://www.bancaditalia.it/pubblicazioni/rapporto-stabilita/2021-1/en_FSR_1-2021.pdf?language_id=1

Bank of Italy (2021b), Annual Report for 2020, Ordinary Meeting of Shareholders, Rome.

https://www.bancaditalia.it/pubblicazioni/relazione-annuale/2020/index.html

Bank of Italy (2021c), Bank Lending Survey, Rome. https://www.bancaditalia.it/statistiche/tematiche/moneta-intermediari-finanza/intermediari-finanziari/indagine-credito-bancario/index.html?com.dotmarketing.htmlpage.language=1

Bank of Italy (2021d), Survey of Industrial and Service Firms in 2018, Rome.

https://www.bancaditalia.it/pubblicazioni/indagine-imprese/index.html?com.dotmarketing.htmlpage.language=1

Bank of Italy, Economic Bulletin, various issues, Rome.

S. De Mitri, A. De Socio, V. Nigro, S. Pastorelli (2021), Financial support measures and credit to firms during the pandemic, Bank of Italy, Occasional Papers, No. 666, December.