Nonperforming loans in CESEE – a brief update on their definitions and recent developments

This study is a brief update of a previous contribution (2013) on national definitions of nonperforming loans (NPLs) in ten relatively large economies in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe (CESEE), i.e. Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine. Against the background of the recent emergence (2013/2015) of internationally harmonized standards of the European Banking Authority (EBA), the present study explores how these national definitions have evolved in the past five years (2013–2018) and whether there has been a tendency toward definitional convergence. We find that some convergence toward EBA/international NPL standards has definitely taken place in recent years. All CESEE EU Member States covered in this study have adopted or confirmed their use of the EBA NPL definition (“90 days+” and/or “unlikeliness to pay”) or of a corresponding stipulation. Serbia and Ukraine have also further approached internationally accepted standards, while Russia’s definition seems to remain somewhat less strict. In any case, none of the countries observed have moved away from international standards. That said, more specific issues related to e.g. the treatment of restructured loans and collateral apparently still give rise to some differences. All observed countries – apart from Russia and Ukraine – boast declining NPL ratios in 2013–2018.