A first analysis on the Green Securitizations in Italy

The work deals with the market of green securitizations in Italy. Green securitizations are financial instruments for which there are not yet accepted definitions or common methodologies to identify them. Firstly, we discuss on the possible definitions and the way to identify these instruments. Secondly, we describe the main characteristics of the market of green securitizations originated by banks in Italy during the ten years 2010 – 2019. We find that banks’ securitized loans to “brown†economic activities grew much more rapidly than “green†activities suggesting that banks preferred to keep loans to “green†activities in their balance sheet and to derecognize loans to the less sustainable ones. Finally, we show how the usual indexes of carbon content of Italian banks’ loans at carbon-critical sectors level can overestimate the amount of financed emissions if they do not consider the banks’ securitization activity.