The news that has been circulating about the entry into force of the new legislation under the so-called NPL Directive (or SMD, Secondary Market Directive) is alarming market participants. In fact, the passage that took place on Monday in the Council of Ministers was not the final one.
To shed some light on the transposition process of the Directive in Italy, we asked Michela De Marchi, Secretary General of UNIREC, for a few clarifications.
“As everyone knows by now, last 10 June the legislative decree scheme containing the transposition of the MDS Directive was on the agenda of the Council of Ministers for a preliminary examination,’ explains De Marchi. ‘The text has been approved, but the process is still far from being complete: the approved text must, in fact, be submitted to the competent Commissions of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, which have 40 days to express their opinion. The legislative decree has already been passed to the 6th Finance Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, which must then give its opinion by 20 July. The decree will then go back to the Council of Ministers for final approval. The entry into force will take place 15 days after the publication of the legislative decree in the Official Gazette’.
So when should the Directive enter into force definitively?
“Let us not forget that the legislation then requires implementing provisions to be adopted by the Bank of Italy. We can therefore assume that the process and the actual transposition of the legislation will take place no earlier than September, in spite of the end-of-June deadline for entry into force that is present in the wording of the European Directive. Moreover,’ adds De Marchi, ‘the MEF has accepted UNIREC’s request to provide for a deadline of six months from the entry into force of the implementing provisions, to allow operators to adapt to the new discipline’.
