On February 21, 2014, Italy enacted Law No. 9 (the “New Law”), which, among other things:

- reduces the tax cost of taking security in connection with notes offerings;

- expands the array of security that can be granted in connection with the issuance of notes;

- introduces new rules which render the investments in corporate bonds more attractive and tax efficient also for investment funds, insurance companies and pension funds; and

- allows the structuring of securitization transactions having corporate bonds as underlying assets and the issuance of collateralized bank bonds secured by corporate bonds.