The hands of usury on the economic fabric, even more so due to the critical issues due to the Covid 19 emergency. The alarm raised by Don Andrea La Regina, president of the Nashak Anti-usury Foundation and Head of the National Caritas Macro-Projects and Emergencies Office, was raised by Michele Albanese, general manager of Banca Monte Pruno. “I believe that something needs to be done, because silence can be the real opportunity to further put our economy in difficulty, as well as in the wrong hands. I am convinced that it is important to talk about it, trying, as always, to raise awareness among professionals, as it is essential to reveal the cards before it is too late. My concern, for the economic circuit of our territories, already in great structural difficulties, this time too, is great “, explains Albanese whose contribution on the subject is also determined by more than twenty years of experience in the world of the fight against usury, as the actions taken by Banca Monte Pruno, in collaboration with the Diocesan Caritas of Teggiano-Policastro and the Nashak Anti-usury Foundation of Teggiano, for the first time, perhaps, a few decades ago, put a credit institution, an anti-usury association and the victims of this hateful illegal activity.
“Unfortunately, nothing new is discovered by rereading, for example, a monthly report at the beginning of the year published by Caritas Florence, where attention is focused on the very dangerous concept” the mafia feeds on poverty “, turning on the spotlight towards a phenomenon already seen in the past, which creates dismay and fear: usury. – reflects Albanese – If we compare this period with current events, we find some common traits, such as, for example, the difficulties in accessing, with a certain ease, credit for both entrepreneurs and other categories. Hence a first assumption: all the opportunities that the post-pandemic can determine, from an economic point of view, will be only the tip of the iceberg, while there could be something different and invisible that could silently lurk behind so many economic activities ” . For Albanese, the will of responsibility of local banks must be supported: “The persistence of a banking sector immobilized by regulations that seem to point, more and more, to what I defined as a” disintermediation of credit institutions “, means unequivocally lowering one’s guard and lending side by side with other mechanisms that could easily enter, hands down, the mesh of the economy. We have reached the point that the conditions for financing companies, even solid and healthy ones, are lacking, which find themselves having some negative book values, a consequence, specifically, of what happened in the last year with the Covid emergency; this is because these positions, immediately, would become loans at risk of default, with a low rating and everything that follows in their management, for the Banks, regarding prudential provisions. The Banks, therefore, would find themselves disbursing a loan that is already problematic and it is certainly not, obviously, a good starting point “.
So Michele Albanese traces a possible virtuous path to follow for the fight against usury: “Our territories, families, businesses, need to use our banks and receive answers that, despite myself, unfortunately, I am very afraid that they can receive from other subjects, totally foreign to our world, as well as to our values. Regulators, decision makers, each for their own role, I rely on you to ensure that this does not happen; let’s go back to the real economy, let’s go back to talking about “individuals, families, small and medium-sized enterprises”, so that neither the pandemic nor the difficulties in accessing credit can generate usury ». (re.ec.)