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MILAN, March 20 Reuters Europe39;s debt collectors have gone from feast to famine amid a collapse in the number of bank loans turning sour.

Companies that recover unpaid bank debts, and which thrived in the aftermath of the euro zone sovereign debt crisis, are rethinking their business models and examining tieups with rivals after COVID19, an energy crisis and twodecadehigh interest rates failed to unleash a new wave of loan defaults.

Banks in Europe39;s south have largely completed the cleanups that once fed the bad loan bonanza and pulled in overseas investment firms such as Apollo, Cerberus, PIMCO, Elliott and Lone Star, while government support measures have helped keep companies and households on their feet.

Nonperforming loans NPLs have held at 1.8 of total bank loans in Europe for six straight quarters, official data show.

In Italy, the continent39;s biggest market for bad debts, sales last year totalled 31 billion euros 34 billion, a third of the 2018 peak. Back then, virtually all disposals came from banks, while more than half of the total in 2023 were resales.

Shares in some of the continent39;s main players including Sweden39;s Intrum  Europe39;s biggest debt collector and Italian leader doValue hit record lows this month…