At a conference of the European Stability Mechanism in Luxembourg on Monday 30 January, the President of the European Banking Authority (EBA), Andrea Enria, floated the idea of setting in place national funds - or a pan-European fund - as an "urgent" response to the stock of non-performing bank loans in Europe, which was put at more than €1 trillion in June 2016.
The non-performing loans, which are valued at their real economic value rather than their market value, would be transferred...