The bad debts generated by the crisis were absorbed by banks’ balance sheets over the following four years, with the bad debt ratio dropping back to 5 per cent in 2001 (see Pierluigi Ciocca, ‘Sulla questione del problema bancario’, mimeo, 2017).
9  production, and the entry of major web companies in the payment services market bring strong competitive pressure to bear but also support innovation. These may represent valuable opportunities for the banks. There is no single, winning business model. Our analyses indicate that profitable banks are active in many different sectors but have in common a high efficiency and productivity.