The cost of risk, expressed as a percentage, amounts to 0.57% at the end of March 2025, at the highest for a little over four years, according to the European banking authority.
The sums provisioned by European banks to face the unpaids of the credits granted to individuals and companies have returned to a high level more seen since December 2020, the European Banking Authority (ABE) said on Monday.
The cost of the risk, expressed as a percentage, amounts to 0.57% at the end of March 2025, at the highest for a little over four years.
Expressed in stock, the questionable receivables of European banking establishments represented 377.8 billion euros at the end of the first quarter.
With 122.2 billion euros, French banks have a third, far ahead of the Spanish, German and Italian banks. Business customers are on the front line.
The ABE had invited European banks at the end of June to be cautious in particular in the face of the risks linked to geopolitical tensions, capable of weakening the companies to which they lend money and complicate their ability to reimburse their loan deadlines.
The authority also made public on 1is August The results of a resistance test of banking establishments, whose balance sheets were subject to a disaster economic scenario.
The European banks, better capitalized and more profitable than two years ago, had generally come out well, but the French banks were lagging behind.