Greece remained on top of European countries whose banking systems had the highest aggregate nonperforming loan ratios as of June-end, according to the European Banking Authority's latest transparency exercise.
Greek banks managed to reduce their average NPL ratio to 30.28% at the end of the second quarter from 33.99% as of March-end. Bulgaria came in at second after its NPL ratio rose over the period to 20.17% from 19.05%, while Cyprus fell to third after its ratio declined to 15.52% from 20.07% at the end of March.
Banks in Sweden and Estonia had the lowest NPL ratios as of June-end at 0.49% and 0.27%, respectively, compared to 0.48% and 0.12% at the end of March.
Meanwhile, Hungary had the highest aggregate coverage ratio among banks in the sample at 67.7% at the end of the second quarter, up from 66.8% as of March-end, while Estonia was at the bottom of the list with 17.4%.
The average aggregate NPL and coverage ratios for European banks were 2.87% and 45.5%, respectively, at the end of June.
Click here to access the Market Intelligence EBA transparency exercise template.