Italian bank Banco Desio and Prelios Innovation have signed a strategic partnership agreement for the adoption of BlinkS, a digital platform developed by the Prelios Group for the trading of non-performing exposures (NPE).
In addition to technical and operational assistance from the Prelios Innovation team that manages BlinkS, the agreement, under which Banco Desio is an NPL and UTP seller, provides for the immediate start-up of operations as well as the extension to other joint initiatives on the Italian NPE market.
Riccardo Marciò, NPL Manager at Desio, says: “We are always looking for opportunities in every sector to make achieving our objectives more effective and simpler. We believe that BlinkS provides us with a dynamic and transparent means to reach a broader range of investors interested in purchasing our distressed loans. In our view, an innovative tool like this is a support for both banks and potential purchasers, by linking the need to reduce stock with greater investment opportunities. This objective is even more important looking to the future.”
“We are excited that Banco Desio, one of Italy’s largest and most dynamic banking groups, has chosen our platform for the digitalization of loan sale processes, thus joining the more than 100 players including over 40 financial institutes currently active on BlinkS,” said Gabriella Breno, CEO of Prelios Innovation, the Prelios Group Fintech company. “In the last few years, Italian banks have made great progress in reducing NPL stocks, and we continue to support them with our technology and innovative processes. Given the current difficulties caused by the consequences of the pandemic, banks need new solutions for timely and effective management and deconsolidation of distressed loan portfolios, so that they can take advantage of the possibility offered by the Government to transform deferred tax assets into tax credits.
“Unfortunately, the impact of Covid-19 on the Italian economy suggests that fresh flows of distressed loans are likely, and for this reason Prelios Innovation is developing new commercial and technological initiatives to make BlinkS the ecosystem of choice for the sale of Italian NPEs. With its characteristics and performance, BlinkS has established itself as a benchmark for the secondary market and is recognised as such by the ECB. Since its launch, approximately EUR1.7 billion of secured and unsecured loans have been traded on BlinkS.”
