MNI BRIEF: NPLs Will Increase As Support Withdrawn - ECB Enria

Non-performing loan ratios are "sure" to grow as fiscal and monetary support is withdrawn from the economy, the Chair of the Supervisory Board of the European Central Bank said in an interview published Thursday.

NPL ratios continued to decrease in 2020 despite the Covid-19 crisis, Andrea Enria said, though there is uncertainty over how large the increase will be. Some sectors of the economy unlikely to come back as strong as they were before the pandemic, he added.

Supervisory Board member Elizabeth McCaul said recently there is "reason to believe that the worst-case scenario, of EUR1.4 trillion worth of NPLs by the end of the pandemic, is less likely to materialise."