Commissie verzoekt Italië om wetgeving inzake interestberekening in bancaire sector te wijzigen (en)
The European Commission has decided to issue a formal request to Italy to amend its law on usury. This law, as amended in December 2000, establishes that interest rates for long-term loans cannot be higher than the average yield on national bonds (BTP) for the period 1996-2000. The Commission supports the objective of the Italian law to tackle exorbitant interest rates but considers these measures to be disproportionate to this objective and to dissuade banks from other Member States from offering their services in Italy. The Commission's request takes the form of a "reasoned opinion", the second stage of the infringement proceedings described in Article 226 of the EC Treaty. If Italy does not provide a satisfactory response within two months of receiving the reasoned opinion, the Commission may decide to bring it before the Court of Justice.
In Italy, the Criminal Code stipulates usury as a crime, but it does not include a precise definition of what constitutes a usurious rate of interest. Such a definition was laid down in Law N° 108 of 7th March 1996. Decree-Law N° 394 of 29/12/2000, later converted into Law N° 24 of 24th February 2001, established that the nature of interest rates has to be assessed having regard to the time when the contract was signed. However, for fixed-rate loans pending at the end of 2000 interest rates cannot be higher than the average yield on national bonds (BTP) for the period 1996-2000. In practice, this means that the courts could consider as usurious interest rates of more than 9.96% per year, whereas at the time the 1996 law entered into force the normal rate on the market, was significantly higher, at 11%. This could have an impact on loans made by banks of other Member States that had been defined by the previous law as "non-usurious".
The effect of this measure, in the Commission's view, is to dissuade banks from other EU countries from offering their services in Italy. As such, the law violates the EC Treaty by constituting an unjustified restriction of the freedom to provide services (Article 49), the right of establishment (Article 43), and the free movement of capital (Article 56), as well as the Directive laying down Internal Market rules for banks (2000/12/EC).