Italian Legislative Decree implementing CCD2

The CCD2 Italian Decree introduces significant amendments to Legislative Decree No. 385 of 1st September 1993 (Consolidated Banking Act – “CBA”) and to Legislative Decree No. 141 of 13 August 2010, as regards, inter alia, the scope of application, advertising and pre-contractual information, deferred payments, and creditworthiness assessments.

The CCD2 Italian Decree, among other things:

1. broadens the scope of application of consumer credit rules to credit agreements with an amount equal to or less than EUR 100,000;
2. exercises the discretion provided under Article 2(8) CCD2 for consumer credit agreements currently exempted by CCD1, mandating the Bank of Italy to identify the provisions that will not apply to credit agreements a) involving a total amount of credit of less than EUR 200, b) where credit is granted free of interest and without any other charges, and c) under the terms of which credit has to be repaid within three months and only insignificant charges are payable;
3.  implements the new CCD2 provisions on the registration and supervision of credit intermediaries, in particular:
   1. by exercising the discretion left by CCD2 to exempt micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from the registration requirement under specific conditions, and#
   2. introducing specific regulatory requirements to avail of the exemption from licensing requirements for merchants;
4. updates the Italian regime governing credit intermediation, including by slightly amending the definitions of agents and credit brokers currently provided under the CBA.

The CCD2 Italian Decree provides for various mandates for the Bank of Italy to adopt secondary implementing measures for the purpose of regulating certain detailed elements, including by amending its Transparency Regulation.

Next steps

The CCD2 Italian Decree entered into force the day after the publication in the Official Gazette. Creditors and credit intermediaries will have to comply with it – save for some exceptions –by 20 November 2026 or, if later, within 90 days from the issuance of implementing provisions by the Bank of Italy.

However, the relevant provisions of the CBA implementing CCD1 will continue to apply to consumer credit agreements concluded before the date of application. By way of exception, certain CCD2 provisions will apply to all open-end credit agreements existing on the date of application, according to the implementing provisions to be adopted by the Bank of Italy.

Authored by Jeffrey Greenbaum, Elisabetta Zeppieri and Andrea Manta.