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NPL. Credit Village awards Unicredit, Banca Ifis and Cerved respectively as 2017 best originator, investor and Servicer

16 April, Credit Village

Unicredit, Banca Ifis and Cerved are the winners of the first edition of the Osservatorio Credit Village NPL Market Award. The awards took place during the Npl Investing & Collection Summit, the most important event in Italy for the NPL sector, in Milan in Palazzo Mezzanotte. Unicredit was awarded as 2017 best originator, Banca Ifis as best investor and Cerved as best servicer. The winners were selected by the analysts of Credit Village with the coordination of the Ceo Roberto Sergio based on the objective data gathered by the NPL National Observatory which has been monitoring independently since January 2016 all the NPL transactions carried out in Italy.

“These awards come from our desire to spread the credit management culture. Our goal is to give exclusive recognition to whom has best contributed to the market by truly making the difference in the trading and managing NPLs throughout 2017 – said Gianpaolo Luzzi, chief director of Credit Village Magazine – Credit Village identified the best players in the Italian NPL market for each of the three categories, cross-referencing the data gathered by our Observatory, assessing them according to several pre-set parameters. For the originator, for instance, we’ve evaluated not only the number of tractions completed and the total gross book value transferred but also the asset diversification and the heterogeneity of the size of the portfolios. To identify the best investor, along with the parameters concerning volumes and type of portfolios acquired, we’ve also considered the activity on the secondary market and the diversification of the investment modalities. Whereas for the servicers, besides the portfolios received, we’ve valued also the intensity of the M&A activity”.

“2017 has been for Unicredit another year spent on reducing the NPE in compliance with the strategic objectives set in the 2019 Transform Plan – declared Jose Brena, Head of Group Distressed Asset Solutions for Unicredit – the bank has completed the Fino operation and other transfers for singles assets and portfolios for a total amount of over 20 billion. Moreover, Unicredit has successfully finalised the platform Sandokan and has transferred NPEs and managed funds from a company specialised in credits to SMEs turnaround. These achievements have been possible thanks to a clear focus and the full coordination of all the involved bank divisions.

Unicredit has been pursuing for years the objective of the creating an NPE market in Italy that is sustainable in the long-term and aligned with the other European markets. The implementation of such market is important for the Italian banking system as the well as for the whole Italian economy”.

“We’re proud of the award as Best Player in the NPL Italian Market. This is the confirmation of the excellent results, the expertise and the dynamic activity of the NPL division of Banca Ifis – declared Riccardo Sigaudo, Head of Origination for Banca Ifis. – In 2017, our NPL division grew on different fronts: 19 operations completed, 13 billion euro of managed credits corresponding to 1 million and 500 thousand holdings, over 700 people between collaborators and local networks working on NPLs and innovative digital projects. These are only a couple of numbers regarding our achievements and we’re sure the growth will continue also in 2018, considering the thriving activity on the Italian market at the moment”.

“We founded Cerved Credit Management based on two ideas: independence and ethics of the performance – stressed the Cerved Ceo Andrea Mignanelli – I’m happy for this award on behalf of the 1,000 colleagues and the hundreds that will join soon the team. Looking at the future, we want to get better and better in the services we offer, using data and combining credit and real estate management”.

What will be the future scenarios of the NPL market? While the NPL stocks within the banks have reduced, the focus has now shifted towards the unlikely to pay, also called UTP, that have reached a gross book value higher than that of bad loans. Very likely, we will assist to a new wave of transfers by banks taking advantage of the opportunities given by Gacs. In the meanwhile, investors are studying the business potential of these new credits, whereas originators and servicers will have to adjust their organizations and expand their competencies in order to be ready to meet the management requirements of this type of credits. Moreover, while in the last two years we’ve assisted to the acquisition of nearly all the independent servicers specialised in NPL management, the interest will shift in the future towards banks’ management platform, as shown by the 3 Carve Out operations completed in the last 6 months.

Source: Credit Village

Translator: Cristina Ambrosi