According to sources, the aim of the European Central Bank is for NPLs to drop to 50%, following the recent legislative reforms on their management, which allows them to be sold on to third parties. Regarding NPEs, the ECB aims at 35%-40% reduction until the end of 2019.
 
Those targets are expected to be finalized the latest until the end of September.
 
Meanwhile, Greece’s four systemic banks increased their provisions for nonperforming loans by a total of 1 billion euros during the second quarter of the year, despite the first indications of an improvement in the situation as far as bad loans are concerned.
 
Analyst argue that the improvement in Q2 would have been greater had it not been for the fears generated over the major supermarket chain Marinopoulos filing for protection in July, which was the main factor that convinced bankers to raise provisions in that quarter.