Factoring is a combination of financial and credit management services allowing a company to improve its credit portfolio and ability to penetrate the market in both qualitative and financial terms.

These services include:

• Credit administration, management and collection
• Legal assistance in credit recovery
• Assessment of customers' dependability
• Guarantee of successful conclusion of operations
• Advance payment of credits before they fall due

Factoring involves the following parties:

• The transferor, that is, a party holding a credit with another counterparty who transfers this credit to the Factor
• The transferee, which is the factoring company
• The transferred debtor, which is the party required to pay the transferred debt to the transferee

The international factoring market is now worth more than 1,100 billion Euro. The Italian market, worth more than 110 billion Euro, representing 11% of the work market and 15% of the European market, is the second largest in the world, after the United Kingdom and ahead of the United States. Factoring has existed in Italy for more than 45 years but is still a little-known tool: more than 60% of companies report that they have been using factoring for less than five years.