Italian banks’ bad loan ratio rises to record 9.5%

(ANSA) – Milan, October 24 – Italian banks’ bad loans as a percentage of total credit rose to a new high of 9.5% this year, up 251% from the start of the country’s longest recession in over two decades, premier Italian merchant bank Mediobanca said on Thursday. The overall bad loan ratio was 2.7% in 2007. The bad debt ratio has been increasing at a faster rate in recent months, Mediobanca’s centre of studies also noted.

Mediobanca’s data showed that the share of bad debt in Italian banks’ net capital reached 81% while performing loans are decreasing.