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Jazbec told the debate, which dealt with the stability and effectiveness of the financial system in light of the recent stress tests, that things will change only with the restructuring of bad loans, which is related in Slovenia to the restructuring of companies.

He noted that unlike in Ireland and Portugal for instance, where "bad claims were mostly tied to investments in the real estate sector, in Slovenia most of them are tied to bad loans to companies which is why the restructuring is more complex".

The chairman of the state-owned NLB bank Janko Medja noted that even though NLB as well as the no. 2 bank NKBM failed the stress tests, "the ECB is not demanding any recapitalisation".

Calling for "moderate optimism", Medja argued that more than half of the work has been done in Slovenia when it comes to financial restructuring, "while business restructuring is still lagging behind, but trends are also improving here".

NKBM's Aleš Hauc said that active restructuring has been taking place at the bank, which has ambitious plans for next year.

A call to kick-start "economic activity" and follow it up with crediting was made by Sibil Svilan of the SID export and development bank.

Svilan argued it is necessary to speak not of credit crunch but of a capital crunch in Slovenia.

MPs were meanwhile also interested in whether the banks have found those responsible for the situation and Jazbec announced that 107 criminal complaints have been filed since 2013. It is now up to the justice system to examine them, he added.

Medja said that at NLB the number of criminal complaints and other measures that have been forwarded to authorities will soon reach 100. Damage lawsuits are amounting to EUR 60m at NLB, while Hauc spoke of EUR 45m at NKBM.