Fitch said 2018 and 2019 should have good economic growth and banks would be advised to take advantage of the situation, but there was a difference between the banks in the north and south of Europe as the latter had high levels of non-performing loans and other problematic assets.

The agency also said that non-performing loans were above the European average of 10% in seven countries with Portugal in third place.

The country with the worst problems was Greece, with 44.9% of loans not performing, followed by Cyprus, with 38.9% and Portugal in a distant third place, with 15.2%.