Europe’s battered banks, reporting their toughest year in a decade, are signaling that the worst of the pandemic’s damage has passed.

Profit at the 19 major EU lenders that have published results dropped below 10 billion euros for the first since Bloomberg Intelligence started collecting the data in 2010. Still, firms including SocieteGenerale SA, BNP Paribas SA and Banco Santander SA have proposed resuming payouts to shareholders as loan-loss provisions are forecast to ebb and cost-cutting efforts begin to kick in.

Fourth-quarter output weighed down by fresh lockdowns to combat Covid resurgence

The eurozone economy fell into a double-dip contraction in the final quarter of last year, shrinking 0.7 per cent from the previous three months but outperforming economists’ expectations after fresh restrictions were imposed to contain the coronavirus pandemic.