Bank loans to businesses and households fell by 2,3% in March against 2,6% in the previous month. While I mortgages they decrease by 0,8% as they go down interest rates to 3,66% from 3,76% the previous month, returning to October 2011 levels. It is the photograph taken by Abi which also indicates an increase in the sufferings gross at 127,7 billion in February, 1,5 billion more than in January 2013. The annual increase is 18,6% (+20 billion compared to February 2012) and the incidence on loans is 6,5, XNUMX%.
“The problem of jobs is predominantly on the side of demand, very limited, both for companies and households, and then it is above all demand for the restructuring of existing loans, explained Gianfranco Torriero, central director of ABI.
In recent days the president of the ECB Mario Draghi he warned of the lack of funding from banks and the high rates applied to SMEs in some countries: while liquidity is almost no longer a problem for banks, the money does not reach families and businesses. A problem on which the ECB is reflecting and which must be solved if we want to find the path to growth again.
The fears of the markets, reflected in the spread still at 300 points, “slow down the transmission of the ECB's monetary policy” and keep rates high for banks and therefore for households and businesses, Torriero explained in this regard. In other words, the ECB's rate cut "in Germany or other countries leads to a decrease" in the cost of financing while in Italy it collides with a situation of lack of confidence on the markets which imposes high rates on credit institutions, thus canceling the benefits of the shares in Frankfurt. Thus, due to the fragmentation of the credit markets, the spread remains the reference rate. Then there is the problem of what measures to put in place.
Collateral against loans and financing to SMEs may not be the solution. In fact, according to Torriero, Italian SMEs "make extensive use of current account credit lines rather than bonds" and therefore cannot be used.
Instead, they continue to grow the deposits, which are not affected by the Cyprus effect: they rose by 6,59% in March. Deposits through bonds are still decreasing (-8,2% on an annual basis) while overall deposits rise by 1,5%.
