But it also underscores the fragility of loan books at both the world's oldest bank and its Italian peers. Bank of Italy data indicates the financial system is lumbered with €360 billion in bad debts - around fifth of the outstanding total. Around 80% are corporate loans exposed to the real estate and construction sector. The central bank also says that €200 billion of the NPL total are known as 'sofferenze', or already in court insolvency proceedings. And that might explain the difficulty in finding a buyer for BMPS. Even with two major overhauls in the past five years, Italy's personal and business debt restructuring procedures remain painfully slow, with the average corporate bankruptcy lasting 7.8 years, according to data from Cerved Credit Management. In fact, around 25% of procedures currently being heard under Italian bankruptcy law - known as Concordato Preventivo - have lasted more than 11 years with a notable portion of those stretching into two decades.