The Italian Banking Association rails against the dissemination of data on gross bank non-performing loans, an indication considered "misleading" both for citizens and for the market. An opinion confirmed by the double-digit losses that Italian bank stocks faced between January and February, before the rebound in recent days.
The ABI therefore decides to rebel and in its monthly report indicates for the first time only the data relating to non-performing loans net of the devaluations already made in the financial statements. The result is as follows: in December the increase was 5,3% for a figure equal to 88,9 billion euro, well below the 200,9 billion gross non-performing loans. A decision which, the deputy general manager Gianfranco Torriero defined as "not only communicative", but which takes the form of a real position taken with respect to the "misleading" interpretations spread in the press which the European Central Bank must also take into account.
It is not the first time that bankers have railed against the generally released data, speaking of an error in considering the devaluations without the provisions made and the guarantees in possession. Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan shares the same opinion, repeating on several occasions the difference between net and gross non-performing loans in order to reassure the markets and put an end to panic selling against Italian bank stocks.
