Credit advance through the transfer of invoices represents an effective method for companies to find liquidity, often to cope with moments of crisis and extraordinary expenses, without having to resort to a real bank loan, or when it is denied.

Unfortunately, already in the access phase to this instrument, small and medium-sized enterprises may face difficulties due to the increasingly prudent attitude held by many institutions, already in considerable difficulty due to the over 200 billion Euros of non-performing loans existing today in Italy. These wastes also end up penalizing SMEs more and more in an increasingly polarized credit market where small businesses no longer receive the capital they would need while large businesses often benefit from rates close to 0% despite, according to when reported by an investigation by the CGIA Mestre , 80% of the bad debts are due to the large ones.

Now let's see how the assignment of credit works in detail: the contract does not require the consent of the debtor (provided that it has not been previously prohibited) but requires notification of the assignment to the same, so that it is put in a position to be able to pay the correct holder of the credit.

Usually it is the bank that provides the notification, but sometimes it can be directly the transferor to take charge, then asking the debtor to send the acceptance to the new credit holder through forms usually provided by the bank itself, in which it must also declare that there are vices or impediments to payment. Once the contract has been signed, the transferor presents the invoice by means of a bill and requests the advance on the credit claimed, which the bank will liquidate on the company's ordinary current account according to the agreed conditions.

Banks usually pay an advance with a prudential difference between 20% and 30% on the nominal value of the invoice: it affects not only the solvency of the debtor, but also and above all that of the transferor.

The transfer of the credit to the bank also entails the opening by the latter of a transitory current account, called the advance account, on which the amounts advanced at the same time as the crediting of the amounts agreed on the ordinary current account are debited. Debt interest is then usually debited quarterly. Finally, when the debtor pays the invoice, the amount will be credited to the advance account and the difference between the sum collected and the advance is then debited to the advance account and credited to the company's account via credit transfer.