Economy Minister Pier Carlo
Padoan said Monday that he had doubts about the European Central
Bank's new rules on non-performing loans.
"It's clear in Italy there is a problem with reducing bank
bad loans," Padoan said on his way into a Eurogroup meeting.
"It is clear that this process has started and is going in
the right direction at increasing speed.
"So we are satisfied about this.
"I have perplexities about the method and content of the
communication put under discussion by the Single Supervisory
Mechanism (SSM). We will discuss it in the coming weeks".
Under the new rules, the ECB will ask lenders to put aside
more cash to cover newly classified bad loans from next year.
The president of the European Banking Association, Andrea
Enria, told the European Parliament Monday that the principle of
the new rules "is not wrong, but it is right to see how it is
applied in practice".
Industry Minister Carlo Calenda said the new rules would risk
hitting small and medium-sized businesses.
He vowed: "we will fight a battle in Europe".
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