Publicis.Sapient Adds NPL Support to European DataWarehouse

The European DataWarehouse repository’s data collection and dissemination mechanisms are based on the guidelines and templates specified by the European Banking Authority (EBA) in response to a mandate from the European Commission and the European Council last year. By extending the templates’ use, European DataWarehouse expects to broaden the investor base for NPLs, lower the barriers to entry, improve data quality and availability, and support price discovery and the development of a secondary market in NPLs.

As a result of initiatives to support ABS trading, the European DataWarehouse already hosts a billion low-level ABS data points, and—from an infrastructure, market and hosting perspective—is already prepared to support NPL data, says Bernd Harnisch, global product lead at Publicis.Sapient.

“Regulators in the EU believe that NPLs still remain a big issue for the economy in Europe and that they are still a major risk for the financial sector,” Harnisch says. “NPLs still pose problems for countries within Europe, particularly Spain, Italy, and Portugal, but initiatives are being developed to build a secondary market in order to mitigate the risks and get NPLs off EU banks’ balance sheets.”

To gain clarity on the impact of NPLs on European banks’ balance sheets, the European DataWarehouse and Publicis.Sapient wanted to provide a mechanism that would deliver greater data transparency so NPLs can be priced correctly for sale, Harnisch adds.