by Chris Ciovacco
Financial Sense
Bad Loans in Italy a Big Problem
The UK’s recent vote to leave the EU has shed some additional light on existing weak spots in the European economy. One of those weak spots is Italian banks. From The Wall Street Journal:
Britain’s vote to leave the EU has produced dire predictions for the UK economy. The damage to the rest of Europe could be more immediate and potentially more serious. Nowhere is the risk concentrated more heavily than in the Italian banking sector. In Italy, 17% of banks’ loans are sour. That is nearly 10 times the level in the US, where, even at the worst of the 2008-09 financial crisis, it was only 5%. Among publicly traded banks in the eurozone, Italian lenders account for nearly half of total bad loans.