Toxic loans in Cyprus banks account for 29.6%

Non-Performing Exposures (NPEs) in the Cyprus banking sector, declined by €27 mln, to €9.68 bln in July 2019, compared to the previous month, but they still represent a third of all loans.

Even though the toxic mountain is coming down, bad loans account for nearly 30% of all loans, and NPEs have dropped 5.63% over the last seven months.

According to data released by the Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC), as of 31 July, total NPEs decreased to €9.68 bln from €9.70 bln in June and €10.26 bln at the end of 2018.

The ratio of NPEs to total loans fell slightly to 29.6% from 29.8% in the previous month.

Households had the largest amount of NPEs, which however declined in July to € 4.97 bln or 36.7% from €5 bln in June and €5.16 bln at the end of 2018.

Company NPEs increased to €4.39 bln or 29.5%, from €4.38 bln last month and €4.76 bln at the end of 2018.

Overdue loans for over 90 days increased to €7.79 bln or 23.8% over total loans, from €7.76 bln in June and €7.62 bln at the end of 2018.

Loans restructured decreased to €6.1 bln or 18.6% (from € 6.11 bln in June), of which €4.33 bln were still classified as non-performing loans.

Total cumulative provisions amounted to €5.14 bln at the end of July.