The EUR 664m loss came as impairments and provisions rose by 23% to EUR 1.5bn, the central bank wrote in a press release, calling for measures to boost economic growth, which would simplify the "urgent financial restructuring of companies and improve conditions for financing".

The total assets of banks decreased by EUR 3.1bn last year, double the drop recorded in 2011. This can be attributed to deleveraging on international markets, which reached EUR 3.6bn last year or 10% of GDP.

Banka Slovenije said that the reprogramming of debt declined because of economic and political uncertainties and lack of trust on international markets with regard to Slovenia's long-term sovereign debt and thereby the financing of Slovenian banks.

There were also fewer sources of funding as a result of a reduction in non-banking sector deposits, especially by the state, which had acted as an important mitigator in the first years of the crisis.

While affordable three-year financing via the Eurosystem still helped bridge the funding gap in the first quarter of 2012, a drop in credit ratings in the second half of the year left banks with liabilities abroad with no other option but to reduce credit activity and investment into securities, the bank wrote.

Meanwhile, the prolonged crisis is contributing significantly to the falling demand for credit by solvent companies. Rising unemployment combined with the uncertain situation on the real estate market is meanwhile also undermining credit demand by households.

Falling demand for credit and banks' aversion to risk were reflected in more than 10% drop in loans to non-financial firms, as well as in a negative trend in loans to households, the central bank wrote.