Posted on 03/18/2017 9:49:38 PM PDT by Lorianne
Events are moving so fast in Europe these days, its almost impossible to keep up. While much of the attention is being hogged by political developments, including the election in the Netherlands, Reuters published a report warning that the European banking sector may face even higher bad loan risks if the ECB begins to scale back its monetary stimulus programs, something it has already begun, albeit extremely tentatively.
The total stock of non-performing loans (NPL) in the EU is estimated at over 1 trillion, or 5.4% of total loans, a ratio three times higher than in other major regions of the world.
On a country-by-country basis, things look even scarier. Currently 10 (out of 28) EU countries have an NPL ratio above 10% (orders of magnitude higher than what is generally considered safe). And among Eurozone countries, where the ECBs monetary policies have direct impact, there are these NPL stalwarts: Ireland: 15.8% Italy: 16.6% Portugal: 19.2% Slovenia: 19.7% Greece: 46.6% Cyprus: 49%
That bears repeating: in Greece and Cyprus, two of the Eurozones most bailed out economies, virtually half of all the bank loans are toxic.
Then theres Italy, whose 350 billion of NPLs account for roughly a third of Europes entire bad debt stock. Italys government and financial sector have spent the last year and a half failing spectacularly to come up with a solution to the problem. The two bad bank funds they created to help clean up the banks toxic balance sheets, Atlante I and Atlante II, are the financial equivalent of bringing a butter knife to a machete fight. So underfunded are they, they even strugggled to hold aloft smaller, regional Italian banks like Veneto Banca and Popolare di Vicenza, which are now pleading for a bailout from Rome, which in turn is pleading for clemency from Brussels.
SNIP
Bookmark bank
For the first time since the banking crisis, the U.S. and EU central banks are diverging in policy. The US is raising interest rates, but the EU is going to keep them low. This will cause money to move here.
Shhhhh.... Don’t tell that to all of the “the Fed keeps raising the rates against Trump” posters in here. The economy can use some profit in banking again without all of the derivative gimmicks.
>> The economy can use some profit in banking again without all of the derivative gimmicks.
The “derivatives” were a side effect of the degenerate mortgage practices forced by Clinton, Frank, and company.
Germany is winning WW3. Its weapon is the bankers and its troops are bought-and-paid for politicians.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.