MILAN, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Italian banks shed more than 17 billion euros ($19 billion) in gross bad loans in December, cutting the pile left on their balance sheets to 100.2 billion euros, a low since July 2011, central bank data showed on Monday.
Bad loans held by Italian banks swelled to 360 billion euros in 2015-2016 following a deep recession and lenders have been working to reduce them in the past two years.
The Bank of Italy said securitisation sales had driven bad loans down 34 percent year-on-year in December after a yearly drop of 25 percent the month before. Net of writedowns bad loans stood at 30 billion euros in December, the lowest level since May 2010. (Reporting by Valentina Za)
