Spanish banks' bad debts as a percentage of total loans fell to 13.06 percent in June compared to the 13.39 percent registered in May, provisional data published by the Bank of Spain showed on Monday.
The fall was due to a fall in bad loans and a rise in overall lending. Overall lending rose by 7.849 billion euros (10.489 billion U.S. dollars) to a total of 1.422 trillion euros in June, while bad loans fell by 3.590 billion euros to 185.862 billion euros from May to June, which meant the lowest figure since August 2013.
Spanish banks' bad loan ratio had decreased in December 2012 and February 2013 as a result of transfers of toxic assets made by some Spanish banks to the Spanish "bad bank" SAREB.
These transfers reduced a big proportion of toxic assets, mainly from the real estate sector, within those entities needing a bailout from the European Union (EU) such as Novagalicia Banco, Catalunya Caixa, Bankia, CEISS or Caja3. (1 euro = 1.336 U.S. dollars)