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Euro area bank lending survey

The euro area bank lending survey (BLS) provides information on bank lending conditions in the euro area. It supplements existing statistics with information on the supply of, and demand for, loans to enterprises and households. The BLS provides input to the assessment of monetary and economic developments carried out by the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB), which feeds into the monetary policy decision-making process.

The BLS is conducted four times a year. It is usually published in January, April, July and October.

Release calendar

Survey Results 2023 Q4

Credit standards

Credit standards for loans to firms tightened moderately further, owing mainly to banks’ higher risk perceptions. More tightening is expected in the first quarter of 2024.

More on credit standards
Loan demand

Demand for loans continued to decline substantially, but less steeply than in the third quarter of 2023, driven by the level of interest rates, lower financing needs for fixed investment by firms, subdued consumer confidence and weaker housing markets.

More on loan demand
Further insights

Bank lending conditions tightened more in real estate and construction than in other sectors. Perceived credit risks in banks’ loan portfolios had a moderate tightening impact on credit standards for loans to firms and consumer credit in the second half of 2023.

More on bank lending

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For the media

In the current bank lending survey, conducted between 8 December 2023 and 2 January 2024, banks report on changes in bank lending conditions and loan demand from firms and households in the fourth quarter of 2023, and on their expectations for the first quarter of 2024.

Read the press release

Full report

Find out more about the latest survey results on bank lending conditions and loan demand from firms and households in the euro area. The report also covers several ad hoc questions on topics of interest for monetary policy, such as bank funding.

Read the report

Analyse the results

About the survey

The euro area bank lending survey (BLS) was launched by the Eurosystem in 2003. Its main objective is to enhance the Eurosystem’s knowledge of bank lending conditions in the euro area. It provides information on the lending policies of euro area banks and supplements existing statistics on loans and bank lending rates with information on the supply of, and demand for, loans to enterprises and households. The BLS provides input to the Governing Council’s assessment of monetary and economic developments, which feeds into the monetary policy decision-making process.

The BLS is conducted four times a year and addressed to senior loan officers at a representative sample of euro area banks, comprising around 150 institutions representing all euro area countries, and takes into account the characteristics of the respective national banking structures.

Questionnaire and glossary

This glossary defines the most important terminology used in the bank lending survey (BLS) and has been put together to assist respondent banks in filling out the questionnaire.

The BLS contains 22 standard questions on past and expected credit market developments. Past developments cover the previous three-month period, while expected developments focus on the following three-month period. Overall, the BLS includes 18 backward and four forward-looking questions to capture both recent and expected developments. The BLS also includes an open-ended question with space for participating banks to respond.

In addition, it may contain ad hoc questions on specific topics of interest.

The questions are classified according to the two borrower sectors that are the focus of the survey, i.e. enterprises and households. Loans to households are broken down into loans for house purchases, on the one hand, and consumer credit and other lending, on the other. 

Results by country

Availability in the Statistical Data Warehouse (SDW)

Country Diffusion indices Net percentages Link to NCB website publication
BE YES YES National Bank of Belgium
DE YES YES Deutsche Bundesbank
EE YES YES Eesti Pank
IE YES YES Central Bank of Ireland
GR YES YES Bank of Greece
ES YES YES Banco de España
FR YES YES Banque de France

HR

YES

YES

Hrvatska narodna banka

IT YES YES Banca d'Italia
CY

YES 

YES

Central Bank of Cyprus
LV YES YES Latvijas Banka
LT YES YES Lietuvos bankas
LU YES YES Banque Centrale du Luxembourg
MT* YES YES Central Bank of Malta
NL YES YES De Nederlandsche Bank
AT YES YES Oesterreichische Nationalbank
PT YES YES Banco do Portugal
SI YES YES national BLS results published only on SDW
SK*

YES

YES

Národná banka Slovenska
FI YES YES national BLS results published only on SDW
* The results for Malta and Slovakia, available in the SDW, are weighted by the share of the outstanding amount of loans issued by each bank in the respective national BLS sample in the total outstanding amount of loans issued by the banks in the national sample. For Slovakia, the results shown on the national website are based on a larger national sample of banks.

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