Portugal 
Spain 
Greece 
Npls, here are the companies that buy old substandard loans and make profits out of them
From the Italian Ifis to the Polish Kruk, till the Norwegian Lindorff and the Algebris Fund: these are the big players betting on this new business
Npls, what a business. The professionals in the field buy heavily discounted packages on Npls (for the secured ones they go from the 20% to the 30% of the nominal value, for the others it can drop to the 5-10%) and then they aim at collecting as much as possible. The difference between what was earned and the amount paid for the purchase constitutes their profit. The use of advanced software and the presence of specialized professionals enable them to obtain collection rates higher than those of banks.
The biggest player in this field in Italy is Banca Ifis, which has recently exceeded 2 billion euro capitalization and 10 billion of managed bad loans.
The Venetian company has bought in the past few months Interbanca, specialized in leasing and corporate finance, in order to broaden its field of action.
A the end of 2016 Kruk arrived in Italy, even though since few months before it had already started buying packages from Italian banks, from Ubi and Mps. The Polish company has taken over Credit Base International from La Spezia and it has developed a strengthening plan implying a hundred hires for next year. Also, the Norwegian Lindorff has consolidated its presence in Italy. Algebris too seems to truly believe in the potential of this field. The Italian office of the company established by Davide Serra is specialized in real estate npls and, besides, has recently launched its second fund for international institutional investors focused on secured bad loans.