EuropeFinance and Insurance
Bremer Landesbank flags heavy shipping losses
Another German bank has flagged its heavy exposure to losses from shipping loans.
Bremer Landesbank warned yesterday it estimates a 2016 pretax loss of EUR1.4bn ($1.5bn), largely thanks to the depressed shipping markets.
“The reason for the higher loss is the further increased risk provisioning in its portfolio of shipping loans in the aggregate amount of now around EUR1.6 billion for 2016,” said the bank, which was taken over in January by state-run Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale.
Many of Germany’s banks have been hit hard by soured shipping loans in the past couple of years with combined losses related to shipping last year estimated to be more than EUR10bn.