The uninformed buyer would not be prepared to pay a higher price for higher-quality assets, given that they are not recognised as such. As a result they would be retained on the books of the seller. There are many sources of asymmetric information in the NPL context.
There is little doubt that the delay in cleaning up corporate balance sheets lies behind the slow recovery of fixed investments despite extremely low interest rates. Indeed, there are cases where financial institutions have been obliged to be cautious in extending additional loans to firms lagging in improving their financial condition, even if they have new projects which are expected to be profitable.