Italy: A regional microcredit fund

Umbria's regional council has unanimously approved a draft law for the creation of a 100 thousand euro fund to help access to microcredit and to fight against high interest through social loans. The loan is granteded to resident citizens in Umbria who are going through temporary economic difficulties such as those that are contingent or connected to difficult periods in family and personal life.

The social loans, of a maximum of 5 thousand euros, are determined according to the needs of the applicants and their capacity to repay them.

The loans aim to ease the burden of having to pay back interests on social loans paid out by banks. They will have to be returned with regular instalments within a period of maximum sixty months. To access the loans Italian or European citizenship is neccessary and they are only given out to adults who have resided, for at least a year, in an an Umbrian municipality and have a family revenue that does not exceed17 thousand euros.