# Euro-Area NPLs Look Calm. Split by Bank Size, the Small-Bank Corporate Book Is at 5.16% and Climbing. Published: 2026-06-19 **Euro-area non-performing loans are near a decade low.** The headline looks peaceful. Split the banks by size, though, and the calm cracks. At the big banks, non-performing loans sit near **2%**. At the small banks, the **Sparkassen and the cooperatives**, the corporate book has quietly climbed to **5.16%**, up about **a third since 2023** and still rising. **Not households. Commercial property and small firms.** Germany, Austria and Italy carry most of it, right where corporate insolvencies are running hot. I pulled this live from the ECB's own API, cleaned it, and laid it out as a short deck. The full dataset, **eight tables, copy-as-markdown**, is at [tigzig.com/ecb-npl-data-tables](https://www.tigzig.com/ecb-npl-data-tables). And across the Atlantic...**US bank headline is calm too, but the strain sits elsewhere**, on the consumer, cards and autos, and in **private credit**, where losses hit the P&L directly and never show as a bank charge-off. Similar headline, different cracks. --- [tigzig.com](https://tigzig.com), the analyst's tool shed. Built AI-agent-first, point your agent at it and it figures out the rest. Humans welcome. --- ## Full Deck Content (Text Format) ### Slide 1 - A calm number, hiding where the stress is **Euro-area banks · non-performing loans · released 19 June 2026.** Euro-area non-performing loans are near a decade low. But split the big banks from the small, and the **small banks have pulled ahead**. The small banks have gone from cleaner than the big banks to worse, and the gap is widening. *Source: ECB Supervisory Banking Statistics, via the ECB SDMX API.* ### Slide 2 - The stress is on the corporate side Split the small banks' book and only one half is moving. **The consumer book is steady. The corporate book is the engine.** *Source: ECB supervisory banking data, via the ECB SDMX API, Q4 2025.* ### Slide 3 - What is under stress: property and small firms Two corporate corners carry the stress: **commercial real estate** and **small-business loans**. Commercial real estate and small-business lending: the two corners under the most pressure. *Rates: ECB supervisory data (SDMX API), Q4 2025. Context: ECB SREP 2025; OeNB FSR 51 (Apr 2026).* ### Slide 4 - In the supervisors' own words The qualitative read from the supervisors matches the numbers. > Commercial-property issues "continued to weigh on asset quality, particularly in jurisdictions with historically low NPLs such as Germany, Austria, Estonia and Luxembourg." — ECB, Supervisory Review (SREP) 2025 > "SME exposures remained a source of concern, as corporate insolvencies... remained elevated... particularly for highly leveraged firms and export-oriented sectors (automotive, chemical, pharmaceutical)." — ECB, Supervisory Review (SREP) 2025 > "The loan quality of small and medium-sized enterprises and commercial real estate companies remains strained." — OeNB (Austria's central bank), Financial Stability Report 51, April 2026 Supervisors have acted: tailored letters went to banks, with most measures due by end-2026. ### Slide 5 - But keep it in proportion The small banks are only **15% of euro-area bank assets**, so the average hides them. 15% of the system, but this is where the corporate stress is concentrated. ### Slide 6 - Where it lives A few specific systems, not simply the big countries. Households stay calm in the big systems (**Germany 1.6%, Netherlands 0.7%**); only small markets like Greece run hot. The euro-area signal is **corporate**. *Sources: ECB supervisory banking data (SDMX API), Q4 2025; Banca d'Italia FSR No.2 2025.* ### Slide 7 - The backdrop: more firms failing Corporate failures have turned up across exactly the three systems showing the bank stress. - **+57% Germany**: May 2026 corporate insolvencies vs the 2016-19 pre-pandemic May average (IWH early indicator) - **6,810 Austria**: full-year 2025, +3.4% on 2024 and a fresh high; property-sector failures +35% - **+38% Italy**: 2025 versus 2024, among the steepest rises in Europe (Allianz Trade) Failures are rising across all three stress pockets, with property the common thread. A cycle to watch, rather than a system in trouble. *Sources: IWH Insolvenztrend (May 2026); Reuters/Destatis (Dec 2025); KSV1870 (Jan 2026); Allianz Trade (Oct 2025); ECB FSR (May 2026).* ### Slide 8 - Data and coverage Where the numbers come from, and the one timing rule that governs the comparisons. **Data source.** Extracted via the ECB SDMX REST API (`data-api.ecb.europa.eu/service/data/SUP/`) on 20 June 2026, and cross-checked against the ECB Supervisory Banking Statistics quarterly publications. **Frequency and timing.** Quarterly. Big-bank (**SII**) data runs to **Q1 2026**, released 19 June 2026. Small-bank (**LSI**) data is published one quarter later by design, so the latest is **Q4 2025**. Every SII-versus-LSI comparison uses the same quarter, Q4 2025. **Coverage.** SII and LSI together are the whole euro-area supervised banking system, about **1,920 banks and EUR 33.8 trillion of assets** (109 significant banks at ~85% of assets, ~1,811 less-significant ones at ~15%). **Segments + country view + OeNB.** CRE and SME NPL ratios are published at the big-bank level; the small-bank split is not published euro-area-wide, so Austria (OeNB) is used as a concrete small-bank example. **Not just an API call, the full dataset is published.** Every figure here is downloaded, cleaned and organised into **eight tables** (seven from the ECB API, plus the IWH insolvency series), each copyable as markdown in one click: [tigzig.com/ecb-npl-data-tables](https://www.tigzig.com/ecb-npl-data-tables). ### Slide 9 - Definitions What the numbers mean, in the ECB's own terms. **Non-performing loan (NPL).** A loan is non-performing when the borrower is *"unlikely to repay"*, or when *"more than 90 days have passed"* without payment. It is a **stock measure**, the outstanding balance of non-performing loans as a share of gross loans (excluding central-bank cash), not a charge-off or loss rate. Comparable to a gross non-performing-asset ratio. (ECB and EBA definition.) **Big banks (significant institutions, SII).** The largest banking groups, supervised directly by the ECB, about **85% of euro-area bank assets**. Combines G-SIBs, universal and diversified lenders, retail and consumer lenders, and other significant institutions. **Small banks (less significant institutions, LSI).** Smaller banks supervised by national authorities under ECB oversight, about **15% of euro-area bank assets**. In several countries these are **savings and cooperative banks**. ### Slide 10 - Sources ECB and national primary data; every figure cross-checked to the published source. - **ECB Supervisory Banking Statistics** - the spine of this note. Pulled via the ECB SDMX API; Q1 2026 release for the big banks (19 June 2026), Q4 2025 for the small banks. *bankingsupervision.europa.eu · data.ecb.europa.eu* - **ECB SREP 2025 · OeNB FSR 51 · ECB FSR May 2026** - CRE stress *"particularly in Germany, Austria, Estonia, Luxembourg"*; SME *"a source of concern"* (ECB SREP, Nov 2025). Austria small-bank CRE 8.3% / SME 6.3% and *"strained"* (OeNB, Apr 2026). Insolvencies *"risen sharply"* (ECB FSR, May 2026). - **Corporate insolvencies** - Germany: IWH monthly early indicator 57% above pre-pandemic norm, May 2026 (1,518 cases); full-year 2025 ~23,900 (+8.3%), highest since 2014. Austria 6,810 (+3.4%), property failures +35% (Jan 2026). Italy ~+38%, among Europe's steepest (Oct 2025). *IWH Insolvenztrend · Reuters/Destatis · KSV1870 · Allianz Trade.* - **Banca d'Italia FSR No.2 2025** - Italian small banks showed *"overall resilience"* in stress tests (Nov 2025). *bancaditalia.it* --- *Amar Harolikar · Decision Sciences & Applied AI · [tigzig.com](https://tigzig.com).*