Italy: CDP-Assifact EUR 1 billion factoring plafond for SMEs and mid-caps

Mechanism

CDP, Italy's national promotional bank, and Assifact (the trade association for factoring operators in Italy) signed a convention establishing a EUR 1 billion plafond dedicated to factoring. Rather than lending directly to companies, CDP provides funding to banks and financial intermediaries against commercial credits those intermediaries acquire from eligible businesses — either pro-solvendo (company retains non-payment risk) or pro-soluto (risk transfers to the intermediary). Eligibility is capped at SMEs (under 250 FTE employees) and mid-caps (under 3,000 FTE employees) operating in Italy.

Severity is set at 2 (quant basis) given the EUR 1 billion facility size, but the mechanism is working-capital liquidity support rather than a targeted industrial subsidy, capex grant, or trade-restrictive measure — it addresses short-term receivables financing across the SME/mid-cap population broadly rather than a specific sector or strategic technology.

Downstream implications

• Adds to the broader post-2023 pattern of Italian/EU state-backed

development-bank liquidity support for SMEs amid tight private bank credit conditions.

• No sectoral or material targeting — applies horizontally across eligible

company sizes, so limited direct read-through to specific supply chains.

Open questions

• Maximum individual financing amount per company was not confirmed in the

primary CDP release (secondary reporting suggested a EUR 20 million cap per financing; not independently verified against CDP's own text).

• Uptake/drawdown figures against the EUR 1 billion plafond have not yet been

reported.