Daniele Nouy defended the proposed new guidelines, which force banks to set aside more money for loans that sour, but said they would be "improved" by taking feedback into account. "When I see so many people saying something different, I can easily draw the conclusion that the drafting can be improved, for sure, and it will be improved," Nouy told the parliament in Brussels. The big worry for Italy is the rules are also being applied to the euro zone's near 900 billion euros ($1.04 trillion) stock of existing bad loans, a quarter of which sit at Italian banks. Authorities there say that could force banks to curtail lending or even raise capital on the market, a task that has eluded some Italian banks in recent months, triggering state interventions. The ECB's vice President Vitor Constancio and Nouy herself have since confirmed the approach to the stock of non-performing loans would be different.

Source: Times of India November 09, 2017 10:07 UTC