It is more and more a credit crunch: the credit crunch of Italian banks is not easing and a further deterioration is expected in the second quarter. He claims it Bankitalia in the Eurozone bank lending survey. In the first quarter of 2013 “the degree of restriction of the criteria adopted in the granting of loans to businesses remained unchanged – writes Via Nazionale –, in line with what was recorded in the euro area as a whole. Banks' caution continues to mainly reflect perceptions of credit risk associated with cyclical conditions. in perspective, in the current quarter there would be a new, contained, tightening".
On the front of mortgages, according to Bank of Italy “the tightening of the supply conditions of loans to households for the purchase of homes has eased slightly, which continues to be affected by the unfavorable prospects of the real estate market. The restriction would stop in the current quarter".
La loan application “it would have remained very weak, both due to the component connected with the financing of investments in fixed capital for credit to businesses and due to the low consumer confidence for that to households. Looking ahead, the weakness in credit demand should ease in the current quarter”.
As for conditions of access to funding sources, concludes Palazzo Koch, "there was a limited deterioration for the interbank market, against a slight improvement for deposits placed with retail customers".
Looking at the entire Eurozone, on the other hand, it emerges that the conditions for accessing credit for households and businesses worsened further in the first quarter of this year, but the pace of tightening is down compared to the fourth quarter of 2012 (7% the net balance against 13% at the end of 2012). This was announced by the ECB in the 'Bank Lending Survey', the survey on bank loans conducted quarterly which involved 135 banking groups from all the countries of the Eurozone between 20 March and 4 April.
In the face of an increasingly pessimistic growth outlook, credit institutions worsened lending conditions both for businesses and for mortgages to households and the uncertain economic outlook, together with the high level of uncertainty, are cited as the main negative factor.
