Le conseguenze della crisi del debito sovrano sulla redditività delle banche europee

One of the major challenges for the European banking sector is the low profitability characterising the system. In particular, this work is aimed at examining the trends that affected this variable during the years that followed the sovereign debt crisis (2013-2019), addressing also the future challenges. The sample used consists of 44 European banks, whose data have been downloaded from Datastream. After a brief summary of the eurozone crisis, pointing out the fundamental events, the work proceeds considering three categories of factors influencing banks' profitability: cyclical factors and the changes in ROE, ROA, net interest income, fees and commissions, non-interest income; structural factors and the problem of cost inefficiencies and quality of assets and finally, how the macroeconomic scenario affects banks' profitability, specifically through the low interest rates environment. In conclusion, the work points out that banks' performance is not uniform across Europe, with Nordic banks showing higher levels of profitability with respect to the other countries, in particular the peripheral ones. The banks' general performance improved until 2018, supported by economic growth, but 2019 marked a turning point, seeing most of the profitability indicators worsening all around Europe. Due to the present emergency situation, on top of the other challenges to be faced, banks should be proactive and ready to adjust their business model in order not to fall again in the unsustainable profitability rate pattern of the recent past.