Twenty local bodies, including institutions, trade associations, as well as professional orders and trusts, signed the «Protocol for the prevention and combating of usury and extortion» within the province of Brescia.
The agreement – which follows the scheme of the 2007 National Framework Agreement, updated in 2021 – aims to increase support tools for micro-enterprises and families in temporary difficultyas well as preventing the infiltration and spread of criminal phenomena linked to usury and extortion, serious threats to economic operators, market balances and compliance with competition rules.
The subscription took place during the periodic meeting of Provincial Committee for Public Order and Security – as an essential institutional forum in which to adopt the most appropriate strategies to combat any form of illegality – convened and chaired by the Prefect Maria Rosaria Laganà.
Purpose
The initiative was born with the aim of developing a territorial network between public and private institutions – which will merge into the«Provincial observatory on the phenomenon of usury», established with a specific provision, installed and presided over today by the prefect, who, thanks to the contribution of all the signatories of the agreement, will act as a real control room finalized, through an exchange of knowledge, experiences and good practice, the promotion of a series of correct information and financial education activities for consumers, as well as the fight against misleading advertising regarding credit granting, also by bringing forward the intervention threshold with respect to situations of fragility of families and businesses, in a logic of valorisation of a solidarity network, before situations of discomfort and suffering can be created.
The pillars
During the first session of the Observatory, the prefect summarized the salient points of the Pact: a front office that people can contact for information on funds for the prevention of usury and the figure of the “facilitator”, which business associations and confids will be able to equip themselves withi, with the task of making known the prevention and solidarity tools made available by current sector legislation.
Furthermore, the provincial Observatory will operate in close collaboration with the national Observatory and will monitor the application of the provincial protocol in order to identify, in agreement also with the banks, the most appropriate strategies for preventing and combating usury.
They will be part of the organization the delegates of the Police Force, the Province and the Municipality of Brescia, as well as those of the Chamber of Commerce, of the ABI – Lombardy Regional Commission – of Milan, as well as the representatives of the trade associations, of Artfidi of Brescia and of the Libera–Names and Numbers Association against the Milan mafias.
