Onado, Marco, (2017), “In search of a European solution for banks’ non-performing loans”, VoxEu, 21 February
After ten years of crisis, European banks are far from seeing the end of the tunnel. While US banks have recovered fairly quickly and have reached in 2012-15 a return on equity of 9.3%, European banks are still stuck at a meagre 3.7%, well below their cost of capital (IMF 2016). This gap is explained by two factors: heavy provisions for non-performing loans (NPLs), and high operating costs reflecting overcapacity and inefficiencies in most big countries, including Germany.
Relevant Posts
- Anastasiou, Dimitrios , Louri, Helen, Tsionas, Mike, (2017), “Non-Performing Loans In The Euro Area: Are Core-Periphery Banking Markets Fragmented?”, Bank Of Greece, December 2016
- European Central Bank, (2016), “Addressing market failures in the resolution of nonperforming loans in the euro area”, ECB, 22 November