By Nathan Allen

UniCredit SpA (UCG.MI) said Wednesday that its exposure to bad loans complies with guidelines set out by the European Central Bank, which were reported in Italian media yesterday but unconfirmed by the ECB.

The Italian lender said it reduced its nonperforming-exposure portfolio by more than 36 billion euros between the third quarter of 2016 and the third quarter of 2018, bringing its core bank NPE ratio down to 4.3%.

"Consequently, UniCredit considers its NPE coverage fully adequate," the bank said.

Shares in Italian banks fell sharply Tuesday after newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore reported that the ECB told its supervised Italian lenders they must fully cover their exposure to all existing and future nonperforming loans by 2026.

Write to Nathan Allen at nathan.allen@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 16, 2019 02:32 ET (07:32 GMT)

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