Continue to grow, albeit slightly, the demand for loans from companies in the North East. A different trend from that recorded in the rest of Italy where instead requests have remained stable (North West) or have even decreased slightly (Central South) after four years of growth.
It detects it the Bank of Italy in the study on banks at a territorial level (Regional Bank Lending Survey, RBLS), which records the trend of credit supply and demand and bank funding in the various geographical areas. The survey, which refers to the second half of 2018, involves around 280 banks and contains some information on the characteristics of the loans requested by businesses and households.
As regards the former, the demand, specific Bank of Italy, was directed above all to support working capital, while it was the one destined for productive investments that decreased and the consolidation of debt positions.
"In the second half of 2018 - reads the study - the phase of easing of the criteria for supply to industry and service companies in progress since 2014 was interrupted". There were signs of a slight tightening in all territorial divisions, especially in the central-southern regions and in all productive sectors.
"The conditions for accessing credit for the building industry, already restrictive, have further tightened”, underlines the Bank of Italy which also explains concretely what the consequences of this tightening have been. In detail, for the first five banking groups the quantity offered fell, particularly in the Center and South, while for the other intermediaries the tightening took place, in all areas, above all through the increase in the spreads applied to the riskiest companies.
Turning to families, in the months from July to December 2018, the demand for home loans continued to grow, with a more marked increase in the northern regions, while the demand for consumer credit remained unchanged in the North-West and contracted in the other areas. It establishes the criteria for the granting of mortgages, as well as the duration and the loan-to-value ratio of new mortgage disbursements. “Although signaling an overall invariance of the offer policies – explains the survey – the intermediaries indicate that they have increased the spreads applied to mortgages considered more riskysigns of easing were instead manifested through a reduction in the share of entirely rejected mortgage applications”.
As regards the characteristics of the mortgages, in the second half of 2018 the loan-to-value ratio was 65,4 per cent, in line with the value recorded in 2017 after the series of increases recorded starting from 2014. The mean life span remained stable at 22 years.
