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DatabankAugust 22 2014

Espirito Santo crisis highlights continued struggle in periphery

The crisis at Portugal’s Banco Espirito Santo has raised fresh doubts about the recovery of banks in the peripheral eurozone.
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The eurozone crisis seemed to have peaked after the restructuring of Greek government debt in 2012, and the repeated interventions of the European Central Bank that stabilised government bond yields.

But, persistent recessions in many EU countries have led to falling real estate prices and rising defaults on corporate and retail loans. In theory, banks have been under pressure from regulators to write off non-performing loans (NPLs) or transfer them to 'bad bank' structures, such as Spain’s Fondo de Reestructuración Ordenada Bancaria or Ireland’s National Asset Management Agency. In practice, impairments in many countries have remained stubbornly high.

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