Links Management and Technology, an Italian company focused on digital business transformation, has concluded the testing phase of the 'Invisible Business' research project, an initiative co-funded by the Apulia Region through the 'PIA - Programma Integrato di Agevolazione' (Integrated Facilitation Programme) call, dedicated to adopting new digital technologies in banking processes.

Born in Lecce in 1999, Links is a consultancy company with over 900 employees and offices in Lecce, Milan, Rome, Bari, Bologna, Sondrio and Tirana. Links operates also as the parent company of a group of six companies that - Links explains - "combines expertise and specializations to guarantee tailor-made digital solutions built and developed on customer requirements with the aim of building and consolidating valuable partnerships".

The 'Invisible Business' research project, launched in 2019, focused on experimenting with the main cutting-edge IT technologies (the so-called 'exponential technologies') to innovate the relationship between banking institutions and users, which becomes, where possible, increasingly immaterial ('invisible').

In the area of credit, the research and development activities of Invisible Business made it possible to renew the offering in the banking sector by enhancing Links' experience in collecting and managing data relating to the credit portfolios of Italian banking institutions.

In the testing phase, Links collected feedback from banking institutions on the new system supporting credit portfolios analysis, which simulates various financial initiatives to verify the potential return in terms of liquidity, and on a solution for credit assignment based on a blockchain-powered marketplace for buying and selling credit. Among the banks involved in these tests, Banca Sistema simulated financial initiatives with the aim of verifying and comparing the potential return of operations in terms of liquidity.

In the area of credit assignment, the new credit marketplace aims to support the due diligence and assignment processes. Publishing credit portfolios on the marketplace immediately highlights the availability of financial institutions; once the interest of potential assignees has been detected, the system supports the data room phase and, subsequently, upon agreement on the sale of the credit (or credit portfolio), the transaction on blockchain.

Using blockchain technology aims to overcome security issues and simplify the contractual aspect of selling credit, which generally requires considerable cost and effort on the part of institutions that tend to prefer larger transactions over the sale of small credit. Banca Sistema, as assignor, and Banca Agricola Popolare di Ragusa, as assignee, participated in the testing phase of the marketplace, simulating the sale of a portfolio of loans through smart contracts.