| Latest news Survey of banking lending policy Date: 19-08-2011 NBP data: In 2011 Q2 banks moderated their lending policy towards enterprises but they slightly tightened lending standards in the case of households. Every quarter the NBP publishes a report entitled ‘Senior loan officer opinion survey on bank lending practices and credit conditions’. The latest report covering 2011 Q2 and banks’ predictions for 2011 Q3 has been available at the NBP website since 19 August 2011. The NBP asks banks if and to what extent they have changed their lending standards (which determine the minimum creditworthiness standards) as well as terms on which they lend money (including the amount of margins). This time banks declared that in recent months they had relaxed their lending policies towards enterprises – admittedly this development was rather due to widespread reduction of margins than to an only slight moderation of lending standards (such an opinion was shared by the highest percentage of banks in the history of surveys). Banks estimate that demand for corporate loans is rising, particularly in the case of short-term loans to small and medium-sized enterprises. They anticipate that this increase in demand will continue into the third quarter, and so will the moderating trend in lending policy towards enterprises. A slightly different situation has developed in the case of loans to households. For both consumer and housing loans there has been a slight tightening of lending standards. In the latter case, this development was accompanied by a reduction of margins. Bankers estimate that in the coming months there will be a growing demand for both types of loans to households (larger demand in the segment of consumer loans) and banks will be prone to further moderation of their policy, particularly in the housing loan segment. See full report ‘Senior loan officer opinion survey on bank lending practices and credit conditions’. |