NBP Report: In the fourth quarter of 2012, the banks continued to reduce the availability of loans to households and small and medium-sized enterprises. The banks expected demand for housing loans to decline sharply in the first quarter of 2013.
The quarterly “Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank
Lending Practices and Credit Conditions”, released by the National Bank
of Poland on 4 February, discusses developments in banks’ lending policy
and loan demand in the fourth quarter of 2012 and their expectations
for the first quarter of 2013. The survey was conducted among 29 banks,
with a total share of 81% in the loan portfolio at the turn of 2012 and
2013.
The analysis shows that the October-December period saw a
continuation (lending policy was tightened in the third quarter of 2012)
of lending policy tightening. This applied both to lending standards
(i.e. creditworthiness requirements) and lending terms (inter alia, loan
costs and collateral amount). Lending policy was tightened, in
particular, with respect to the sector of small and medium-sized ones,
and also applied to loans to households. According to the banks’
announcements, this trend will also continue in the first quarter of
2013, and a slight moderation of lending policy in the segment of
consumer loans may be an exception.
The availability of loans is declining as, at the same time, consumer
demand does not change substantially or fall. According to the banks,
revisions to lending policy result primarily from unfavourable forecasts
for the economy and an increase in industry-specific risk. In addition,
the banks expect demand for housing loans to fall significantly in the
first quarter of 2013 on the back of the discontinuation of the
government-subsidised “First family home” programme.
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