Its Financial Stability Report includes a three-year outlook for the return on assets of the main banks in the country, including Novo Banco, an indicator that measures the earnings generated by their net assets.

The study showed that the aggregate return of the banks’ assets should reach a moderately positive position in 2019, mainly because of a gradual increase in the financial margin because of short-term interest rates that are expected to be slightly higher and a reduction in impairments compared with 2016.

In today’s report, the Bank of Portugal is still concerned with non-performing loans and an uncertainty about the quality of the assets and the ability to cover losses also limited the banks’ access to the funding markets.