Euro area bank lending survey

Euro area results

• Time series of the results of the ECB Bank Lending Survey:  csv data ( zipped ) 73 kB, en  last update 25 April 2012
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The results are reported from the perspective of the specific month in which the bank lending survey was conducted, i.e. January, April, July or October.

Description of the bank lending survey for the euro area

The Eurosystem has developed a survey of bank lending in the euro area. The main objective of the survey is to enhance the Eurosystem's knowledge of financing conditions in the euro area and hence to help the Governing Council of the ECB to assess monetary and economic developments as an input into monetary policy decisions. It is designed to complement existing statistics on retail bank interest rates and credit with information on supply and demand conditions in the euro area credit markets and the lending policies of euro area banks. The survey addresses issues such as credit standards for approving loans as well as credit terms and conditions applied to enterprises and households. It also asks for an assessment of the conditions affecting credit demand.

The survey is addressed to senior loan officers of a representative sample of euro area banks and will be conducted four times a year. The sample group participating in the survey comprises around 90 banks from all euro area countries and takes into account the characteristics of their respective national banking structures.

The questionnaire

The survey contains 17 specific questions (   pdf 80 kB, en) on past and expected credit market developments. The former cover developments over the past three months, while the latter focus on the next three months.

Questions are classified according to the two borrower sectors that are the central focus of the survey, i.e. enterprises and households. The definitions and classifications used in the survey are consistent with other ECB statistics. For both enterprises - i.e. non-financial corporations - and households, the questionnaire covers both loan demand and loan supply factors.

Among the supply factors, attention is given to credit standards and credit conditions and terms, as well as to the various factors that may be responsible for their changes. Credit standards are the internal guidelines or criteria that guide a bank's loan policy. The terms and conditions of a loan refer to the specific obligations agreed upon by the lender and the borrower, such as the interest rate, collateral required and maturity. All in all, ten questions centre on supply factors, of which seven look at credit standards and three at terms and conditions. Of the questions on credit standards, three give respondents the opportunity to assess how specific factors affect their bank's credit standards as applied to the approval of loans to both enterprises and households.

Among the factors that may affect loan demand, various factors related to financing needs and the use of alternative finance are mentioned. Seven questions focus explicitly on loan demand, of which three look at demand from enterprises and four at demand from households. Overall, 13 backward and four forward-looking questions are included, in order to capture both recent and expected developments.

The survey also allows participating banks to give free-formatted comments in response to an open-ended question.