Debt advice for consumers: nature, European debate and implications for Italy

Diletta Antenucci (diletta.antenucci@bancaditalia.it) and Gioia Caldarelli (gioia.caldarelli@bancaditalia.it)
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Diletta Antenucci: Bank of Italy
Gioia Caldarelli: Bank of Italy

No 740, Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) from Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area

Abstract: Debt advice indicates a set of activities including personalized assistance of a technical, legal or psychological nature provided by independent professional operators for consumers who experience or might experience difficulties with their financial commitments. In the European framework it is considered an effective tool for dealing with over-indebtedness and is already well developed in nine EU countries, including Germany and France. A plurality of reasons makes this topic important in Italy as well: the international debate has directed attention to all the potential benefits of this service and the most recent European initiatives are moving in the direction of introducing measures to facilitate its spread/take-up or even impose its adoption. The paper describes nature and characteristics of debt advice for consumers, illustrating: the activities included; the entities that can provide it and the sources of financing; the current debate and some of Europe’s best practices; the differences between debt advice and the main types of advice to debtors already in existence; and the still limited experiences and some possible perspectives for Italy.

Keywords: debt advice; debt counselling; overindebtness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D18 G51 I22 K10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ban
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