The Italian Business Crisis and Insolvency Code identifies specific signals — financial, capital and management — that indicate the onset of distress. Ignoring them, or acting too late, narrows the options available and increases the liability of those managing the business.
The CCII has moved away from the former “OCRI” framework but retained the underlying logic: there are indicators that, once a given threshold is crossed, trigger specific obligations. The principal one is the forward-looking DSCR (Debt Service Coverage Ratio), identified by the CNDCEC guidelines as a detection tool.
The most relevant signals include: repeated delays in payments to employees, suppliers or tax authorities; breach of the 12-month forward-looking DSCR threshold; negative or rapidly deteriorating equity; systematic losses and lack of operating cash flows sufficient to cover debt service.
Alongside quantitative indicators, the CCII also considers qualitative signals as relevant: loss of significant clients, deterioration of industrial margins, inability to renew credit facilities, disputes with strategic suppliers. Not every signal implies a fully manifested distress, but their combination requires assessment.
Delaying assessment after detecting signs of difficulty does not make distress disappear: it narrows the options available and increases the personal liability of directors for losses to creditors.
Directors who detect signs of distress are under a duty to act without delay to adopt suitable measures to overcome it. Inaction in the face of perceptible signals is assessed negatively when reconstructing liability in the event of subsequent insolvency.
The moment of intervention determines which instruments remain available: the negotiated restructuring procedure requires a distress that is not yet irreversible; going-concern preventive composition presupposes resources and cash flows that can still be defended; the attested recovery plan requires creditors willing to negotiate. The longer the wait, the narrower the perimeter.
Timely technical assessment makes it possible to understand whether the signals detected amount to manageable distress, which instrument is still accessible, and with what urgency action must be taken.
A confidential conversation to assess the actual situation and the options still available.
Assess your positionRecurring financial imbalances, treasury tensions, delays in tax and contribution payments. Indicators provided by the CCII.
The options available shrink. Personal liability of directors for losses to creditors increases.
Reading of indicators, timely activation of CCII instruments consistent with the actual stage reached, support with adequate organisational arrangements under Article 2086 ICC.