Brussels pushes banks to continue lending

4/29/2020, 6:38:31 PM

The European Commission considers that the banking sector is better equipped than ten years ago to face the circumstantial economic crisis with the coronavirus pandemic.

In Brussels

Help banks to keep the credit gates open to businesses and households. This is the objective of the package presented by the European Commission, which should encourage 450 billion euros in additional borrowing. Reinforced since the 2008 crisis, the financial sector " is now part of the solution ", assures Valdis Dombrovskis, Vice-President of the Commission, in charge of the economy.

Read also: How the ECB sucks the debts of the States in the crisis

This package arrived on the same day as the first results of the banking sector, showing a surge in provisions in the face of the fear of a bad debt boom. In the euro zone, the Spanish bank Santander is in the lead and reserves 1.6 billion euros, melting its quarterly profit by 82%. The German Deutsche Bank triples its provisions compared to 2019, while limiting them to 500 million euros.

Banks also risk being weakened by their exposure to sovereign debt of states, which explode under the effect of massive plans