Two-thousand and sixteen was a rocky year for EU banks. Across the leading 250 EU banks by Tier 1 capital, all major indicators dropped compared with the previous year. Profits fell significantly, by 15.25%, largely driven by aggregate losses in Italy, Portugal and Greece.
Out of the 36 Italian banks in the ranking, 20 made a profit, yet the $10.9bn loss at UniCredit and losses of more than $1bn each at five other banks (including Veneto Banca and Banca Popolare di Vicenza, which have since been deemed failing by the European Central Bank) have made Italy’s lenders the highest loss makers on aggregate in the Top 250 ranking with $16.1bn. This compares to $7.7bn of aggregate profits in the 2016 ranking.
