Student loan drawdowns declined year-on-year in August 2025

In August 2025, Finns drew down EUR 143 million in student loans, a 13% decrease compared to the corresponding period a year earlier. From the beginning of August, higher education students were able to draw down their entire loan allocation for the autumn semester, while secondary education students could access the first loan disbursement for the autumn semester. The average loan drawdown in August 2025 was slightly above EUR 3,000. It is estimated that more than half of the drawdowns were made at the maximum permitted amount.^[1] The maximum amounts and disbursement dates of government-guaranteed student loans for the upcoming academic year remained unchanged from the previous year.^[2]

During the past academic year (August 2024–July 2025), students drew down EUR 918 million in student loans, a 17% increase on the previous academic year. Following the changes introduced at the beginning of the academic year, students could, however, draw down even over 30% more government-guaranteed student loan than before. Drawdown volumes in the past academic year were slightly lower than in 2021–2022, when student loan drawdowns reached EUR 935 million, a record high in the history of the statistics. However, the increased drawdown volumes have accelerated the growth of the student loan stock from a year earlier. At the end of August 2025, the stock of student loans reached an all-time high at EUR 6.6 billion, with an annual growth rate of 5.6%.

The average interest rate on student loans drawn down in August 2025 was 2.79%, which was 1.28 percentage points lower than a year earlier. The average margin on new student loan drawdowns was approximately 0.5%.^[3] For student loans, it is more common than for other household loans to be linked to banks’ own prime rates instead of Euribor rates. In August, the average interest rate on new Euribor-linked student loans was 2.76%, in contrast with 3.05% for those linked to prime rates. In August 2025, 8% of new student loans were linked to prime rates, down from 11% a year earlier.

Loans

In August 2025, drawdowns of new housing loans by Finnish households amounted to EUR 1.1 billion, an increase of EUR 10 million compared to the same period a year earlier. Of the newly drawn housing loans, buy-to-let mortgages accounted for EUR 110 million. The average interest rate on new housing loans increased from July to 2.76% in August. At the end of August 2025, the housing loan stock totalled EUR 105.8 billion, with a year-on-year change of -0.1%. Buy-to-let mortgages constituted EUR 9.0 billion of the housing loan stock. At the end of August, the Finnish household loans comprised EUR 17.6 billion of consumer credit and EUR 17.8 billion of other loans.

Drawdowns of new loans^[4] by Finnish non-financial corporations in August totalled EUR 1.7 billion, including EUR 650 million of loans to housing corporations. The average interest rate on new corporate loan drawdowns fell from July to 3.73%. At the end of August, the stock of loans granted to Finnish non-financial corporations totalled EUR 107.9 billion, with loans to housing corporations accounting for EUR 45.7 billion.

Deposits

At the end of August 2025, the total stock of Finnish households’ deposits was EUR 115.4 billion, with an average interest rate of 0.81%. Overnight deposits accounted for EUR 70.3 billion and deposits with agreed maturity for EUR 15.6 billion of the total deposit stock. In August, Finnish households entered into new deposit agreements with an agreed maturity in the amount of EUR 1.2 billion. The average interest rate on these new term deposits was 2.10%.

* Includes loans and deposits in all currencies to residents in Finland. The statistical releases of the Bank of Finland up to January 2021, as well as those of the ECB, present loans and deposits in euro to euro area residents and also include non-profit institutions serving households. For these reasons, the figures in this table differ from those in the aforementioned releases.
¹ Rate of change has been calculated from monthly differences in levels adjusted for classification and other revaluation changes.  
² Non-financial corporations also include housing corporations.

• Euro-denominated deposits and loans of euro area residents: stock, 12 month rate of change and average interest rate
• Euro-denominated loans and deposits of Finnish households 
• New business on loans and new drawdowns of household loans 
• F​innish contribution to the euro area monetary aggregates and their main counterparts
• Imputed interest rate margins on loans from MFIs

The next news release on money and banking statistics will be published at 10:00 on 28 October 2025.

Related statistical data and graphs are also available on the Bank of Finland website: https://www.suomenpankki.fi/en/statistics/.

_{[1] Data on the average loan drawdown and estimated proportion of maximum drawdowns are derived from the Positive credit register and calculations by the Bank of Finland. The maximum amount of government-guaranteed student loans depends on factors such as the student’s age and level of education.}

_{[2] We addressed the changes effective from 1 August 2024 in our release published on 30 September 2024: https://www.suomenpankki.fi/en/statistics/statistical-news/mfi-balance-sheet/2024/the-amount-of-student-loan-available-for-drawing-down-was-raised-in-august/} 

_{[3] Based on Positive credit register data and Bank of Finland calculations.}

_{[4] Excluding overdrafts and credit card credit.}