Corporate insurance and debt capacity: the point of view of banks and insurance companies in Italy (Polizze per le imprese ed accesso al credito in Italia: il punto di vista delle banche e delle compagnie di assicurazione)

In banks/enterprises relations a key role is played by Basel II Framework, which accurately correlates banks’ capital requirement to risks, thanks to a more precise creditworthiness assessment (Tarantola, 2008). The containment of risks inherent in bank financing can be carried out ex ante, through an adequate screening, which allows the proper assessment of enterprises’ economic and financial situation and a sound composition of the total loan portfolio, and ex post, through guarantees, which allow to benefit from a loss reduction only after insolvency has occurred (Boot et al., 1991; Erzegovesi, 2007, 2008; Gai, 2005, 2006; Malinconico, 2008; Stiglitz, Weiss, 1981, 1986). From this perspective, Basel II Framework brings important changes, since life insurance and surety policy are “eligible” guarantees for Credit Risk Mitigation. Nevertheless, banks could offer a better pricing to borrowers not because they are less risky, but because the whole operation would need a lower capital requirement. Therefore, corporate risks reduction – which would allow, in the absence of credit rationing, a more profitable debt capacity – is necessarily achieved through an appropriate “umbrella insurance”, able to cope with both direct and indirect loss. The “therapeutic” capacities of such coverages lead to a synallagmatic relation between corporate insurance purchases and increase in enterprises’ creditworthiness, since enterprises’ risk management decreases their overall riskiness and improves their creditworthiness (Mayers, Smith, 1982; Thakor, 1982; Davidson et al., 1992; Zou, Adams, 2008, 2009; Ania, 2010).