Bad debt at Italian banks rises to 189 billion euros in March

MILAN (Reuters) - Non-performing loans at Italian banks totalled 189.5 billion euros (137 billion pounds) in March, up 14.9 percent from a year earlier, central bank data showed at a time when the government is studying ways to help domestic banks offload bad loans.

Loans least likely to be repaid, or "sofferenze", were up 15.3 percent in February at 187.3 billion euros.

In a separate report published earlier, the central bank said that lending by Italian lenders to non-financial companies, which has been falling since May 2012, dropped 2.2 percent in March.

(Reporting by Francesca Landini and Giulio Piovaccari; editing by Agnieszka Flak)