The economic crisis has dragged employees and pensioners into the net of loan sharks. It’s the first time and the numbers of the phenomenon are impressive. In Emilia Romagna alone (one of the most affected regions) complaints increased by 200% in the last year. However, rebelling is not easy and those who choose to do so risk finding their way blocked by banking regulations.

The middle class is under usury. Office workers, freelancers, but also pensioners: the crisis is biting and it is no longer just entrepreneurs or gamblers who turn to loan sharks. In the last five years, 52 percent of the subjects who have turned to the Federation of anti-racket and anti-usury associations (Fai) clinics located throughout the country are people with a fixed income, the families next door. A growing phenomenon especially in the North, land of conquest of the mafias. “When the crisis arrived – explains the coordinator of Fai, Luigi Ciatti – the assistance system was not found ready. And still today out of 33 associations registered in the lists of the Ministry of Economy and delegated to manage the prevention funds, only six operate from Tuscany upwards”.

The most recent data from the Interior Ministry, relating to 2013, are eloquent. In Emilia Romagna, usury crimes increased by 219 percent (rising from 21 in 2011 to 67 in 2013, with 31 reports and 43 confirmed victims). The same goes for Lombardy, where organized crime is rampant and the number of reports has grown by 54 percent (from 48 in 2011 to 74 in 2013). Red alert also in Lazio: arrests there in the last year have increased by more than 20 percent compared to the previous two years. On a general level, the phenomenon has expanded in Italy and the crimes detected by the forces of order have grown by 30 percent (from 352 in 2011 to 450 in 2013). Numbers that unfortunately only capture the tip of the iceberg, given that, understandably, only a minority among the victims finds the courage to denounce their perpetrators. Furthermore, there are more and more women who risk suffocating in the coils of loan sharks. In Lazio the number is even higher than that of men: 617 against 598 in 2013.

The causes of the exaggeration of the phenomenon are manifold. “The most worrying – notes the president of Fai Tano Grasso – is linked to debt through finance companies. Hundreds of employees in suits and ties and with good salaries turn to our branches, forced to live on 200 euros a month. The mechanism is the following: many enter into two or more loan agreements for small amounts but with interest rates even over 10 percent. When signing, each company does not check whether the subject already has other loans in place, because in the event of insolvency it will be able make use of the severance pay”. Thus came the usurers in the public sector. “In the last year – explains Grasso – I have been following two proceedings against as many head nurses of the hospitals in Naples who, sensing the business, have improvised loan sharks. They “lend” the money to colleagues in economic difficulty due to the financial ones. They apply interest rates of at least 10 percent monthly, in a year they take double the initial loan. In one case the exchange of money in the pediatric ward was documented, do you understand?” The number of over-indebted people has grown so massively as to create a new prototype of criminal: the clerk-usurer. in a year they require double the initial loan. In one case the exchange of money in the pediatric ward was documented, do you realize?” The number of over-indebted people has grown so massively as to create a new prototype of criminal: the clerk-usurer. in a year they require double the initial loan. In one case the exchange of money in the pediatric ward was documented, do you realize?” The number of over-indebted people has grown so massively as to create a new prototype of criminal: the clerk-usurer. 

Not even companies, historically the most exposed subjects, are immune from the phenomenon. Confcommercio reports that between 2008 and 2013 usury in the sector grew by 30 percent and extortion by 22 percent. 8 percent of companies are threatened by criminal groups and 35 percent of these have suffered damage to their assets. Mario (the name is fictitious) is one of the 7 percent of entrepreneurs who have suffered physical as well as psychological violence. “One afternoon – says the man – a professional boxer linked to the Casalesi clan entered my video library in the Fenocchio district of Rome (Eastern suburb of Rome) and beat me bloody. The business was going badly, I had contracted 100 thousand euros of debts with the banks.To cover the overdraft, I asked five different usurers for money.

“This form of usury is a particular case – explains an investigator who has been involved for years in repressing the phenomenon – the most common phenomenology is linked to the discount on checks for third parties. Let me explain: I need immediate liquidity but I have a post-paid check in hand – dated that another person gave me. I go to the usurer and get it changed, but if the check is still not payable even after the date indicated, then interest is triggered. In the initial stages, the relationship between victim and executioner is cordial, almost friendly. But if the debt cannot be paid off, then third parties responsible for collecting it intervene (often belonging to criminal families as in the case of the Casamonicas, in Rome).”The number of complaints is so low “because it often happens that the victims are people who operate in an undeclared regime and this creates hesitation in contacting us. Other times it happens that criminal groups take over the assets instead and that the legitimate owner remain a mere holder and nothing more”.

The few who have the strength to report find their way blocked by banking regulations. “It is the tragedy of those who are reported as bad payers, a phenomenon that has grown by 100 per cent in the last five years – continues Ciatti – It is good to know: individuals who have been included in the black lists for some time and who then turned to loan sharks, are denied the possibility of opening a current account useful for returning to work (without cards or other forms of credit) even if they have reported and arrested the loan sharks. This greatly complicates the rehabilitation processes”. An accusation that the banking system rejects, emphasizing that “it is a delicate subject. Each case must be investigated individually and from every point of view”. Meanwhile, the emergency continues.