Italian banks suffered the highest losses in the world last year. As reported by The Banker this July when comparing the world’s largest lenders by Tier 1 capital, UniCredit reported a loss of €13.6bn – the largest globally among all banks in our Top 1000 ranking. The third, fourth and fifth largest loss-making banks were recorded by three other Italian lenders: Intesa Sanpaolo, Banca Carige and Monte dei Paschi di Siena. The second largest loss was borne by the UK's Royal Bank of Scotland.
These results can be attributed to a number of reasons, the biggest of which is a more cautious attitude towards non-performing loans (NPLs) in an effort to anticipate results from the European asset quality review that is examining banks across the region. UniCredit alone took a €9.3bn loss on impaired loans.
