VENICE, Italy (Reuters) - Intesa Sanpaolo <ISP.MI> plans to reduce its impaired loan burden to no more than 5% of total lending by the end of 2021, a senior executive at the Italian bank said on Friday.
Biagio Giacalone, head of Active Credit Portfolio Steering at Intesa, said the bank would meet at the end of current business plan the 5% threshold which the European Banking Authority has set as a guideline on how to manage problem loans.
Speaking to reporters after a taking part in a panel discussion at Banca IFIS' annual bad loan conference in Venice, Giacalone said the bank would have to reduce gross impaired debts by 14% a year to reach the target.
"Considering our strategies of pro-active credit management, industrial partnerships to improve recoveries and intense activity on loan origination ... these are sustainable targets in terms of financial and capital impact, we remain confident. We're already ahead of our plan," he said.
(Reporting by Valentina Za, editing by Silvia Aloisi)
