Growth of housing loan stock slowed down towards year-end

MFI balance sheet Statistics Friday 2 January 2015, 1:00 PM

New housing loan drawdowns in November amounted to EUR 1.2 bn, which is slightly less than in the same period a year ago. Demand for new housing loans typically subsides towards the end of the year. Overall, households' new drawdowns of housing loans in 2014 have been moderate, totalling EUR 13.9 bn, which is EUR 0.3 bn less than in January-November 2013. The annual growth rate of the housing loan stock was only 1.6% in November 2014, compared to 2.6% in the same period a year earlier.

Simultaneously with the slowing of growth in the housing loan stock, banks’ customer-specific loan margins have narrowed. The average housing loan margin calculated by the Bank of Finland was 1.45% at the end of November 2014, compared to 1.56% still at the beginning of the year.


Loans

The stock of euro-denominated housing loans amounted to EUR 89.8 bn at the end of November, and the average interest rate was 1.45%. At the end of November, household credit comprised EUR 13.6 bn in consumer credit and EUR 15.6 bn in other loans.

New drawdowns of loans to non-financial corporations (excl. overdrafts and credit card credit) amounted in November to EUR 1.8 bn, which is about EUR 0.8 bn less than in November 2013. The average interest rate on new corporate-loan drawdowns decreased from October, to 2.35%. The stock of euro-denominated loans to non-financial corporations at the end of November was EUR 67.9 bn, of which loans to housing corporations accounted for EUR 21.0 bn.

Deposits

At the end of November, the stock of household deposits totalled EUR 80.4 bn, and the average interest rate on these deposits was 0.38%. Overnight deposits accounted for EUR 54.2 bn and deposits with agreed maturity for EUR 12.9 bn of the total deposit stock. In November, households concluded EUR 0.9 bn of new agreements on deposits with agreed maturity. The average interest rate on these was 1.04%.

Notes: 
MFIs comprise all monetary financial institutions operating in Finland. 
Loans and deposits comprise all euro-denominated loans and deposits vis-à-vis the euro area as a whole, with countries other than Finland accounting for a very small share of total volumes.

Key figures of Finnish MFIs' loans and deposits, preliminary data

September, EUR million October, EUR million November, EUR million November, 12-month change1, % Average interest rate, %
Loans to households2, stock 118,535 118,783 118,989 2.0 1.90
    - of which housing loans 89,389 89,588 89,781 1.6 1.45
Loans to non-financial corporations3, stock  67,398 67,601 67,934 6.3 1.87
Deposits by households2, stock 80,922 80,396 80,435 -0.9 0.38
Households' new drawdowns of housing loans 1,346 1,435 1,217 1.71

1 Rate of change has been calculated from monthly differences in levels adjusted for classification and other revaluation changes. 
2 Households also include non-profit institutions serving households.
3 Non-financial corporations also include housing corporations.

For further information, please contact:
Johanna Honkanen, tel. +358 10 831 2992, email: johanna.honkanen(at)bof.fi,
Anne Turkkila, tel. +358 10 831 2175, email: anne.turkkila(at)bof.fi.

The next news release will be published at 1 pm on 30 January 2015.
Related statistical data and graphs are also available on the Bank of Finland website:
http://www.suomenpankki.fi/link/2331b6266da3492f832ec75e0f654bd9.aspx?epslanguage=en.

You can also subscribe to the monthly Loans, deposits and interest rates –newsletter to your email from the Bank of Finland website