Bad debt in the Italian banking sector rose to about €200billion in May from €198.35 billion a month ago, a report from showed.

Elsewhere, Reuters reported July 11 that the Italian Treasuryplans to approve by the beginning of August a decree that will allow Italianbanks to use a state-guarantee scheme to sell their bad loans.

In February, the European Commission approved Italy's plansto launch a state-guarantee scheme to help the country's banks offloadnonperforming loans. The government needs to approve the decree to implementthe scheme, the newswire noted.