October 2020 euro area bank lending survey

• Credit standards tightened for loans to enterprises and households
• Firms’ demand for loans moderated due to lower emergency liquidity needs
• Bank lending strongly supported by ECB measures

• banks internal guidelines or loan approval criteria tightened across all loan categories, namely loans to enterprises, loans to households for house purchase and consumer credit and other lending to households in the third quarter of 2020, according to the October 2020 bank lending survey (BLS).
• For loans to households for house purchase, banks overall terms and conditions also tightened in the third quarter of 2020.
• Regarding euro area banks access to retail and wholesale funding, banks reported in net terms that access improved in the third quarter of 2020.
• In combination with the negative deposit facility rate, these measures have had an easing impact on bank lending conditions and a positive impact on lending volumes.
• In particular, the TLTRO III operations have strongly supported bank lending over the past six months.
• The euro area bank lending survey, which is conducted four times a year, was developed by the Eurosystem in order to improve its understanding of banks lending behaviour in the euro area.
• The results reported in the October 2020 survey relate to changes observed in the third quarter of 2020 and expected changes in the fourth quarter of 2020, unless otherwise indicated.
• The October 2020 survey round was conducted between 21 September and 6October 2020.

Notes

Chart 1 Changes in credit standards for loans or credit lines to enterprises and contributing factors (net percentages of banks reporting a tightening of credit standards and contributing factors) Source: ECB (BLS).
Chart 2 Changes in demand for loans or credit lines to enterprises and contributing factors (net percentages of banks reporting an increase in demand and contributing factors) Source: ECB (BLS).