BCE. Banking sector faces "headwinds" in coming months
The European Central Bank (ECB) believes the banking sector faces “headwinds” in the coming months after bumper profits driven by rising rates started to ease.
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Economia BCE
At a press conference to present the institution's financial stability outlook, the ECB vice-president, Luis de Guindos, stressed that banks have contributed to keeping the system solid because they have very high levels of capital and liquidity.
However, he asked for no complacency, to look to the future and to try to take advantage of the good profitability of the institutions to strengthen capital reserves.
In this sense, he pointed out that the profitability of banks has begun to decline, after having stabilized in the last quarter of 2023.
"I believe that the data for the first quarter are going in the same direction and that there are headwinds that the banking sector will have to face in the coming months," he said.
Guindos highlighted the increase in the number of loans and financing costs and the low growth.
He also stressed that the ECB has verified that, in some European countries, the authorities have understood that it was the right time to increase the capital reserves of banks and have taken important measures to strengthen their positions.
During his speech, Guindos also referred to non-bank entities, which, in his opinion, are gaining weight in the European financial market, which is why the ECB is currently paying more attention to them.
The Spanish economist considered that the supervision of these entities should be strengthened, since they are linked to banks, so their problems would have repercussions on the system.
In the financial stability report released today, the ECB warned that, although the financial stability of the eurozone has benefited from the improvement in economic expectations, the outlook remains "fragile".
Read Also: Financial stability outlook remains "fragile", warns ECB (Portuguese version)
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