On 10 February 2016, decree no. 18/2016 (the "Decree") was passed which, following the agreement reached with the EU late last month, sets out the details of the Italian government guarantee scheme for senior tranches of securitisation ABS backed by NPLs.

It is hoped that the scheme will help to alleviate the serious problem of nonperforming loans on the balance sheets of Italian banks, estimated to make up around 17% of total loans, as compared with the EU average of 6%.