On May 25th, Hipoges had the pleasure of participating in SmithNovak’s 6th annual event, NPL Italy, which took place at the Enterprise Hotel in Milan, Italy. As one of the main European leaders in the NPL market, Hipoges was present as a sponsor with the exceptional participation of Luigi Izzo, Executive Director of Advisory of Hipoges.
Among the different panels, NPL Italy focused on market evolution, investment opportunities, new technologies in this industry, Servicing, and the secondary market.
During the event, more than 186 delegates, 91 companies, 36 speakers and 12 sponsors gathered, including leading industry figures from 11 different countries. Not only a large Italian presence, but also experts from other countries such as the United Kingdom, Spain and Greece were present at the event.
The NPL Italy panels organized by SmithNovak
Among the different panels that took place, the event began with a presentation of the Italian market, and how transactions in this market are expected to evolve in the coming year in terms of prices, turnover, asset types, strategies of buyers and sellers, or the Servicing community. It also discussed how a crisis in Italy would affect investor appetite and the acquisition process itself, the banks’ strategy, or servicing repair rates. But not only these issues, but also how the regulatory activity will affect the Italian market, the evolution of the secondary market in this territory or what are the main current challenges for investors and servicers were topics discussed during this first panel.
Later, technology became the main theme, something inevitable in modern times. On the one hand, the possible obstacles that the Italian market may face when adopting new technologies were discussed, while different benefits derived from their implementation were presented. In this way, the great growth in the adoption of face technological solutions was highlighted.
Before the end of the first part of the NPL Italy event, the biggest challenges and opportunities for secured and unsecured servicers were discussed, as well as the developments that have taken place in the last two years in the Italian servicing market and their expected evolution.
After a lunch break, which provided a key opportunity for networking, three more panels took place. The first panel presented an overview of the Italian market in terms of the main challenges, opportunities, types of trades, asset classes, prices, etc.
![npl Italia 2023 smithnovak luigi izzo Hipoges Italian market](https://www.hipoges.com/wp-content/uploads/evento-npl-italia-smithnovak-2023-hipoges-2-1024x461.jpg)
Between each panel, short breaks were offered for networking, having a coffee and recharging for the following discussions. Thus, the penultimate debate on NPLs in Italy focused on the opportunities for investors and servicers, how banks will managedefault by SMEs and the specific challenges and what these represent for servicers, as well as the opportunities for investors in the market and the evolution of prices in different sectors. They also discussed the strategies that banks are adopting for each asset class in Italy.
The last panel, which began at five o’clock in the afternoon and lasted about an hour, addressed the issue of operations in the secondary market. The question has been raised as to whether transactions on the secondary market will account for up to 50% of all transactions in Europe this year, and it has been analysed what types of loans and assets will be traded on the Italian secondary market. The types of buyers emerging in the southern European market were also examined. The development of asset marketing and what kind of assets would be the best sellers in the event of a crisis were discussed. Finally, the panel concluded by discussing which instruments are facilitating transactions on the secondary market.
At the end of SmithNovak’s NPL Italy event, Gárbor Barna, Head of Workout at CIB Bank commented that it was “a very well-organized conference of great interest.” Mario Cortesi, Head of Distressed Credit & Structured Finance at Quaestio added that it was “an excellent event with a well-structured program that covers the most relevant topics in the industry.” Finally, Maria Elena Cannazza, partner at Lombardi Segni and Associadi strongly recommended the event, noting: “I highly recommend this event! High level of panelists and participants and very efficiently organized.”
Discover other events in which the company participated in.