The trialogue between the Commission, Council and European Parliament has tried to finalize an agreement on the strengthening of fiscal discipline in the euro area, in time for next week’s ECOFIN Council and European Parliament plenary meetings.
Continued efforts to address non-performing loans (NPLs) resulted in an 1/2  BIS central bankers' speeches  overall decrease in the NPL ratio for banks under ECB supervision from 6.5% to 5.2% in the third quarter of 2017. Notwithstanding these positive developments, a number of structural challenges continue to dampen banks’ profitability prospects.