MADRID, February 20, 2015 | The Corner | Non-performing loans in Spain continue to decline, with the total ratio of bad debts now standing at 12.5% of total outstanding loans. The figures represent the fourth consecutive decline in non-performing loans and now stand at the lowest level since September 2013. The figure is over 100bps less than the 13.6% recorded in December 2013, in spite of overall lending falling by -4.6%.
MADRID | The Corner | Non-performing loans (NPL) in the financial sector may have reached their highest rate in Spain, according to Moody’s, thanks to the new economic fundamentals, the slightly better employment data, home prices’ stabilization and the last consumer confidence numbers.
ATHENS | By Jens Bastian via MacroPolis | The recent presentation of half-year results by the four systemic banks in Greece – National Bank of Greece (NBG), Piraeus Bank, Alpha Bank and Eurobank – brought a mixture of good news and underlying structural challenges affecting the operational capacity of domestic lenders.
ATHENS | By Manos Giakoumis via MacroPolis | Having completed capital increases of 8.3 billion euros, which more than covered the capital needs identified by the Bank of Greece (BoG) under the baseline scenario, the single most important risk for Greek banks remains the non-performing loans (NPLs).
MADRID | The Corner | Banks feel nervous about the upcoming ECB’s AQR and stress tests. Despite the recent waves of capital raises, lenders still don’t know about the amount of expected recapitalization needs, nor how their provisions against loan losses will do. According to a interesting piece by Bruegel (check their graphs), which comments on the recent E&Y European Banking Barometer, almost one in three of the 294 respondents still expecting to raise Loan Loss Provisions. And, as we wrote not long ago, only 8% of respondents anticipate raising additional capital following the exercise, there is an additional 19% of respondents who a capital raise “might” be necessary.
MADRID | By The Corner | NPLs in Spain’s banking sector fell by 9 basis points to 13.6% in February. This means just a slight contraction, but it’s still the first drop in terms of standardization since the crisis began. Indeed, the rate has not been affected this time by the transferral of real assets to the bad bank Sareb of 2012 and 2013 or the methodology changes fixed in at the beginning of present year.
BEIJING | By Wu Hongyuran via Caixin | Executive at large bank says figure may have increased by another 60 billion yuan over the first two months of the year.