Covid19 has pushed European NPL levels up for the first time in years, says the Debtwire European NPLs 3Q-20 Report. According to the EBA Risk Dashboard, volumes in the EU and EEA nations were 526.3 billion euro at the end of the second quarter of 2020, up from the minimum low of 522.8 billion at the end of March. Sales of NPLs have also slowed, with deals for 39.2 billion completed by the end of the third quarter of 2020. Italy accounted for the largest number of closed deals (25.3 billion euro: 64.5% of the total), followed by Greece with 9.1 billion. “Securitizations with state guarantees have proved to be strong weapons to dispose of NPLs even in the midst of the current crisis,” said Alessia Pirolo, Head of NPL Coverage, at Debtwire Week. Her comments were echoed by Prelios Group CEO Riccardo Serrini, at the event’s Restructuring Day: “We expect a new wave of around 80 billion euro of NPEs over the next three years. Diluting in several years the capital absorption from NPL disposal losses, coupled with the advantages of the Italian State's GACS guarantee scheme, was the real catalyst for the massive deleverage of the Italian banking system in the past. I hope the European regulatory authorities and governments will not forget those positive effects on the real economy.”