Non-performing loans of Italian banks are equal to 11,2% of total loans, the highest level among those recorded in advanced economies. This is what emerges from a table in the Global Financial Stability Report, the report drawn up by the International Monetary Fund as part of the spring work underway in Washington, which however does not take into account the recent measures introduced in our country to tackle the problem of NPLs (the bank decree and the birth of the Atlante fund).
In the case of Unicredit, the leading Italian banking group by asset, the Fund calculates 10,8%. For Intesa Sanpaolo, the second largest bank in our country, the figure is 10,7%. For the other Italian banks category – i.e. those listed with assets of less than 500 billion dollars – the Fund calculates 12,2% (a level highlighted in orange).
The situation is quite different in the USA (0,7%), the United Kingdom (2,8%), the Eurozone (4,3%) and even in Spain (6,7%), where the IMF provides for groups with assets less than 500 billion non-performing loans in relation to loans equal to 10,1%. Percentages that compare with 6,1% of BBVA and 4,5% of Santander. As for the French BNP Paribas and Société Générale, they are both at 5,6%.
According to the Fund, at the end of last June, euro area banks still had non-performing loans amounting to 900 billion euros. The institute led by Christine Lagarde also underlines the correlation between the so-called "non-performing loans" (Npl) and the share prices of the banks: the higher the stock of Npl, the greater the decline in the securities of the credit institutions that have them in the belly, "especially in Greece and Italy".
According to the IMF, non-performing loans represent a "significant structural weakness for many banking systems". In the Eurozone, "weak profitability increases the difficulty in managing NPLs by reducing the ability of banks to create cushions through retained profits (those not redistributed to shareholders)".
As for the new rules, the Monetary Fund promotes the European rules on the so-called bail-in but remains cautious, not excluding that in the event of a bank crisis, public aid may still be needed. The institute states that the EU directive for the recovery and resolution of banks - the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive (BRRD), which transfers the cost of crises from the public sector to shareholders and holders of other bank liabilities - "is a step important step forward to strengthen the resolution regime and better align incentives for banks and investors to the risks they are taking”.
For the euro area, according to the IMF, there is an "urgent" need to address the problem of non-performing loans and excess capacity. On the first front, the Fund suggests a comprehensive strategy that combines supervision, reforms of insolvency regimes and the development of markets for stressed debt also through asset management companies. On the second, the IMF argues that "in many countries a consolidation and a reduction of the system may be necessary so that the remaining banks can enjoy sufficient pricing power and demand to increase the capital generation capacity of the system” itself.
In short, in the euro area, a "more complete solution to the problems of European banks cannot be postponed any longer".
