1 Minute Read by Reuters Staff (Reuters) – LONDON, June 30 (Reuters) – The European Union’s banking watchdog said on Wednesday that banks in the first quarter of 2021 became significantly more profitable due to higher trading income and a reduction in the weight of souring loans. In its quarterly Risk Dashboard, the European Banking Authority (EBA) reported that banks’ return on equity, a crucial measure of profitability, increased to 7.6% in the first quarter from 1.9 percent in the year ending 2020, the highest since the watchdog began compiling the dashboard in 2014. The increase was fueled by falling risk costs, higher fees and commissions, and trading profits, according to the EBA. The dashboard is based on a sample of 131 banks that account for 80% of the banking sector’s assets in the EU. (Huw Jones contributed reporting, and Toby Chopra edited the piece.) Continue reading
