Suffocated by debt, entrepreneurs at the end of the line: one in five is from Lombardy.

Milan, August 9, 2025 – One in five businesses strangled by debt is in Lombardy. Of the 2,712 companies nationwide, 543 saw their owners' assets liquidated in the second quarter of the year, a 9% increase compared to the same period in 2024. Twenty percent of the procedures involved businesses headquartered in the increasingly strained Italian economy.

The first half of the year , according to the latest update from Cribis - a company of the Crif group specializing in providing information, solutions and consultancy to businesses - ended with 1,023 judicial liquidations in Lombardy . A trend that continued to grow month after month given that the first quarter had stopped at 480. From January to June, in the province of Milan, 460 entrepreneurs were called upon to satisfy creditors based on the rules introduced in 2022 by the new Business Crisis and Insolvency Code. The provinces of Brescia (139) and Bergamo (91) came in second and third place; Monza and Brianza with 85 cases and Varese with 61 completed the ranking of the first five most affected areas. Cremona with 46 procedures preceded Pavia with 38 and Como (30). Lecco (15) and Sondrio (8) have further burdened the picture of Upper Lombardy, while Mantua (26) and Lodi (22) have burdened that of the provinces in the southernmost area.

"The increase in liquidations in the second quarter of 2025 highlights the difficulties many businesses are facing in a still fragile economic environment," analyzes Marco Preti, CEO of Cribis . "Continuing high inflation, combined with renewed tensions in global trade, creates real risks: tariffs and protectionist measures could curb exports and disrupt supply chains. The most affected will be small and medium-sized businesses with close ties to international markets."

The businesses active in the trade sector suffered the heaviest impacts , with a 16% increase in liquidations between the first and second quarters . This was followed by construction and the services sector . At a territorial level, the highest number of judicial liquidations in the second quarter was concentrated in Lombardy (543), which remains the most affected region, followed by Lazio (400) and Emilia-Romagna (239). These three areas represent a significant portion of the national total (43.5%), a consequence of both the high entrepreneurial density and the greater exposure to critical macroeconomic factors.

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