Title: An overview Italian companies and the financial and economic crisis: a cultural revolution

Authors: Roberta Provasi; Patrizia Riva

Addresses: Department of Economics Science and Law, Milan-Bicocca University, Via R. Bicocca degli Arcimboldi 8, 20126 Milan, Italy ' Department of Economics and Business Studies, Piemonte Orientale University, Via Perrone 18, 28100 Novara, Italy

Abstract: Since 2007 a financial crisis has hit economies. Each nation identified tools to help companies face numerous daily difficulties. This paper identifies some intermediate solutions from purely contractual (informal) arrangements for debt rescheduling between debtor and creditors to formal reorganisation or liquidation procedures. This techniques form a continuum based on the degree of judicial intervention and the degree of formality in general. Italian bankruptcy law has been recently modified to introduce: recovery and resolution planning. Formerly, the main aim of Italian bankruptcy and business recovery used to be the protection of creditors; now the goal is claiming priority to safeguard companies and reduce their difficulties. The government recognise that difficult situations can be solved in much the same way as private issues. The phenomena is relevant as in the first six months of application, the number of pre-insolvency agreements submitted to the Italian courts have been more than doubled.

Keywords: Italy; financial crisis; economic crisis; bankruptcy law; pre-insolvency agreements; resolution planning; restructuring agreements; cultural revolution; recovery procedures; UNCITRAL Legislative Guide; business research; independent auditors.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEBR.2014.062932

International Journal of Economics and Business Research, 2014 Vol.7 No.4, pp.502 - 517

Published online: 24 Jul 2014 *

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