Indeed, the very knowledge that the Bank stands ready to purchase assets may be as beneficial as the actual purchases. And over a period of time, as market functioning improves, the quantity of private sector assets held by the Asset Purchase Facility may well decline as assets mature and are rolled over into the private market. This should be seen as a sign of success not of dwindling support. The Bank continues to review actively the case for extending its operations into other corporate credit markets, and recently announced its intention to extend its purchases to include commercial paper secured on loans for working capital. But given the relatively modest size of corporate credit markets in the UK, to increase significantly the scale of our corporate debt purchases would involve changing the nature of our operations. Rather than improve their functioning, large scale asset purchases would risk crowding out private debt markets: substituting for markets rather than supporting them. That is not consistent with the aims of the Asset Purchase Facility and could detract from the long-term efficiency of the economy. A second criticism that is sometimes made against the asset purchase programme is that some of the gilts we have purchased have been from foreign investors and this may limit the effectiveness of the purchases. This argument is based on the supposition that overseas investors may be more likely to reallocate their portfolios into foreign currency assets, rather than into alternative sterling assets, such as corporate bonds or UK equities.
The net value of non-performing loans for the last 12 months decreased by over BGN 660 million. Their share represents 2.66% of the total net value of loans and advances, and their amount is fully covered by the capital surplus above the regulatory requirements and buffers; Profitability, measured by the amount of profit of BGN 1.7 billion, guarantees a return on assets and capital, and is a serious source of internal support for balance sheets if necessary. In this context, the main challenges facing the banking sector to date can be summarised along three lines: the dynamics of the macroeconomic environment, the pro-cyclical behaviour of banks, and the potential risks to their profitability. The macroeconomic environment, as I noted at the beginning, is characterised by high uncertainty and the potential for escalation of risk scenarios. This implies the continuation of stress tests for the banking sector with various hypothetical negative scenarios. The banks' pro-cyclical behaviour is associated with continued credit growth. Under upward credit dynamics, the capacity of borrowers to service their obligations is sometimes overestimated. That is why the supervisory policy will continue to aim at ensuring that credit institutions act conservatively. 3/5  BIS - Central bankers' speeches  The profitability of the banks is put at risk along two lines simultaneously. First, due to the need to set aside additional provisions under a growing probability of non-performing loans; and secondly, due to limitation of the banks' scope to generate income from core activities.