ECB publishes end-March data covering nearly all of the EU banking sector

The European Central Bank on August 7, 2026 published consolidated banking data for the European Union as of the end of March 2026, according to a press release from the ECB.

The dataset describes the EU banking system on a group consolidated basis and draws on 335 banking groups together with 2,284 standalone credit institutions and subsidiaries and branches of non-EU groups, covering almost 100% of the EU banking sector’s balance sheet across the 27 member states. Quarterly releases contain a subset of the information published in the year-end dataset, the ECB said.

The indicators span how profitable and efficient banks are, what their balance sheets consist of, funding and liquidity positions, the quality of assets, the degree to which assets are encumbered, and solvency and capital adequacy. As a rule, reporting institutions follow the International Financial Reporting Standards together with the implementing technical standards on supervisory reporting issued by the European Banking Authority, though a number of smaller ones rely on national accounting frameworks, according to the ECB.

The ECB set out several definitional points. The non-performing loans ratio is defined as non-performing loans divided by total loans, with central bank deposits and demand deposits included. Profitability figures are not annualised: they represent the profit or loss recorded from January to March 2026 divided by total equity. The Common Equity Tier 1 ratio is CET1 capital divided by total risk exposure amount.

Danish data for the first quarter of 2026 were not available at the time of publication, so fourth-quarter 2025 figures were used as a proxy, with first-quarter 2025 data used for the numerator of the return-on-equity calculation, the ECB said. The release also incorporates revisions to some historical data.