The European Central Bank was forced to ease its rules on how banks should cover their bad loans on Wednesday after the European Parliament weighed in on the matter with its own legislation. “The European Central Bank (ECB) has decided to revise its supervisory expectations for prudential provisioning of new non-performing exposures (NPEs),” the ECB said in a statement. “The decision was made after taking into account the adoption of a new EU regulation that outlines the Pillar 1 treatment for NPEs.” (full story)