Mafia Now the Biggest “Bank” in Italy Due to Crisis

According to a new report released Tuesday, organized crime in Italy has stepped up to fill the void where big banks are not lending anymore. This has made the Mafia the largest “bank” in all of Italy, forcing hundreds of small companies into loans they may never get out form under. This has caused hundreds of worker layoffs and other problems.

Extortionate lending by criminal groups had become a “national emergency”, said the report by anti-crime group SOS Impresa.

In Italy this is not nickel and dime stuff, the report estimated that the mafia turned a profit in excess of $100 billion dollars last year alone.

A statement from the authors of the report said,

“With 65 billion euros in liquidity, the Mafia is Italy’s number one bank. Organised crime groups like the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, the Naples Camorra or the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta have long had a stranglehold on the Italian economy, generating profits equivalent to about 7 percent of national output. Extortionate lending had become an increasingly sophisticated and lucrative source of income, alongside drug trafficking, arms smuggling, prostitution, gambling and racketeering. The classic neighborhood or street loan shark is on the way out, giving way to organized loan-sharking that is well connected with professional circles and operates with the connivance of high-level professionals,”

The days of old world gangster handing out rolls of cash in dingy bars and coffee houses has been replaced by a high tech network of professional thugs who know the game and its ways.

They work with traditional credit markets and have found a way to blend the lucrative with the legitimate.

In Italy, more than 200,000 businesses have turned to organized crime for financial needs effecting tens of thousands of jobs. This is often an arrangement of last resort because the borrower has no where else to go.

In Italy, more than 56% of borrowers have seen lending requirements tighten up at legitimate banks in Italy.

Would you go to the Mafia for a loan to save your business?