In 1769, Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, introduced the legal basis for an instrument that developed into Germany’s Pfandbrief, the forerunner of all covered bonds. How would he have reacted to the Draghi report on European competitiveness?

UniCredit’s stake build in Commerzbank has highlighted that governments still hold stakes in their national champions. Selling them offers bank buyers a unique opportunity to reinforce their positions in foreign markets or enter new markets at scale.

Within two months, most European banks will be subject to final Basel 3 standards aimed at strengthening the resilience and stability of banks. We do not expect further major changes to the regulatory framework although there are likely to be refinements.

The consolidated non-performing loan (NPL) ratio of EU banks remained stable at a low level of 1.86% in the second quarter despite a rise in total NPLs to EUR 373.4bn, reflecting underlying volume growth.

UniCredit is pursuing a growth strategy to create a pan-European banking leader, but political resistance to cross-border consolidation remains strong.

Spanish banks expect strong H2 results supported by higher-for longer interest rates and loan volumes recovering faster than expected. Asset quality continues to be strong so risks to profitability and organic capital generation are contained.

The recovery in net interest margins is taking longer than French banks initially anticipated, due to limited loan production and continuing migration of deposits to remunerated accounts, so improvements in cost efficiency are limited.

Efforts to address remaining items in the Covered Bond Directive continue. While the Directive has brought many benefits, there is still room for improvement, particularly for European Secured Notes, which could offer both banks and SMEs funding benefits.

Giving depositors preference in insolvency and harmonising national deposit guarantee schemes are among proposed steps to improve the process for dealing with failing banks. They also edge towards the goals of the European Deposit Insurance Scheme (EDIS).

Profits at the Russian operations of RBI, UniCredit, and OTP Bank, the European banks with the highest exposures to Russia, continue to increase despite regulatory pressure to expedite exit plans.