The changes taking place within the Italian banking system also embrace an alternative investment fund known as Atlante Fund. This is a private-sector initiative set up by an independent funds management company that sources capital from financial institutions (banks, insurance companies and foundations that invest on a voluntary basis).
The fund’s purposes are:
- to ensure the success of the capital increases required by the regulatory authority of banks that are currently facing objective market difficulties, acting as a back-stop facility;
- to contribute to the start-up of a market for non-performing bank loans: the amount of non-performing loans that could be taken off bank balance sheets is by far greater than those acquired by the fund, since Atlante is concentrating its investment on the junior tranches of securitisation vehicles, leveraging the more senior credit for which there is already investor interest;
- to offer investors attractive returns over the medium/long term and benefits to the banking system that will be reflected on the nation’s economy in terms of stability and growth prospects.