NPLs below 80 bn, 60% down in 4 yrs

(ANSA) - Rome, December 27 - Italian bank's non-performing loans have fallen to under 80 billion euros, the Italian Banking Association (ABI) said Friday.
    By the end of the year, it said, the total of NPLs will be just under 80 billion.
    This compares to 84 billion in June.
    At the end of 2015, by contrast, the NPLs totalled some 197 billion euros.
    So they will have dropped about 60% in four years, ABI said.
    ABI added that "in 2019 the deterioration of credit slowed".
    Italy has seen a number of banking crisis in recent years, some related to the high level of NPLs.
    Siena bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS), the world's oldest lender, had to be bailed out.
    Regional banks including a number from the Veneto region also had to be rescued or consolidated.
    Some other local savings banks went to the wall, with small savers bilked and having to get government compensation.