BRUSSELS, March 13 (Reuters) - A European Commission proposal for guidelines on selling bad loans will make the process easier, Italy’s Economy Minister said on Tuesday.
The Commission is due to publish on Wednesday a set of proposals designed to tackle the 759 billion euros ($936.76 billion) of bad loans sitting on European banks’ balance sheets.
As well as the Commission proposal, the European Central Bank is working on a new set of rules, which was sharply criticised, particularly in Italy.
“We can say ahead of time that this Commission document smoothes the edges of that controversy,” Padoan said after a meeting of European finance ministers in Brussels.
“We think it makes the process much more manageable.” ($1 = 0.8102 euros) (Reporting by Francesco Guarascio, writing by Isla Binnie)