Recourse to the bond market by Italian firms, though increasing, is still lower than in countries with more developed capital markets. This paper analyses how the distribution across investors of securities issued by Italian firms varies according to the characteristics of the issuers, with the objective of identifying possible supply-side obstacles to the development of the market.
The paper suggests that the Italian bond market is hindered by the lack of specialized investors. The analysis shows that the presence of institutional investors in the corporate bond market in Italy is lower than in other, more market-oriented countries and that Italian institutional investors are less willing than foreign ones to hold securities issued by riskier borrowers.
