Law decree 18/2020, in order to cope with the crisis that Italian companies are facing due to the spread of the COVID-19, has provided in art. 56 for financial support measures in favour of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.

In particular, businesses with legal seat in Italy and which meet the size limits set forth in Recommendation no. 2003/361/CE, as well as self-employed workers with VAT number, which at March 17th, 2020 had obtained loans or credit lines, may request to the relevant credit institutions the application of the following measures: (a) continuation, thus excluding the revocation, of credit lines and loans granted until September 30th, 2020; (b) postponement at September 30th, 2020 of the repayment of single-instalment loans with deadline prior to such date; (c) suspension until September 30th, 2020 of the payment of loans and leasing instalments, due prior to such date. The request shall be sent through self-certification, in which the interested businesses declare that they are suffering a temporary shortage of liquidity because of the diffusion of the Coronavirus. As consequence of the granting of the measures provided for by art. 56, credit institutions will benefit from the guarantee of a special section of the Guarantee Fund for SMEs.

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