Bank Lending Survey (BLS): Q1 2025
15/04/2025 - Press Releases
- The credit standards for loans to non-financial corporations (NFCs) remained unchanged, while the terms and conditions for corporate loans eased, in the first quarter of 2025. The overall demand for corporate loans remained almost unchanged.
- The credit standards for household loans remained almost unchanged regarding housing loans and unchanged regarding consumer credit loans, for the first quarter of 2025. The terms and conditions tightened for housing loans, while for consumer credit loans they remained unchanged, in the first quarter of 2025. The demand for housing loans increased, while the demand for consumer credit remained almost unchanged.
Loans to non-financial corporations
In the first quarter of 2025, the credit standards for loans to non-financial corporations (NFCs) remained unchanged compared with the fourth quarter of 2024 (see Chart 1), in line with the expectations expressed in the previous quarterly survey round. Moreover, banks expect credit standards to remain unchanged during the second quarter of 2025.
The overall terms and conditions for loans to NFCs eased compared with the fourth quarter of 2024, due to the banks' liquidity improvement, the pressure from competition and the borrower's creditworthiness, that led to narrower margins mainly on average loans.
During the first quarter of 2025, the overall demand for corporate loans remained almost unchanged (see Chart 2). In the second quarter of 2025, banks expect the demand from NFCs also to remain almost unchanged, although the demand for loans to large corporations is expected to increase.
In the first quarter of 2025, the ratio of rejected applications for loans to NFCs remained unchanged compared with the previous quarter (see Chart 3).
Loans to households
In the first quarter of 2025, the credit standards for loans to households remained almost unchanged regarding housing loans and unchanged regarding consumer credit loans (see Chart 1). The terms and conditions for housing tightened due to charge increases besides the interest rate, while for consumer and other credit loans it remained unchanged, during the first quarter of 2025. During the second quarter of 2025, banks expect that credit standards for housing and consumer credit loans will remain unchanged.
The demand for housing loans increased due to the launch of the state program "MY HOME II" aimed at supporting new borrowers with more favourable terms in general and final pricing for them, while the demand for consumer loans remained almost unchanged, in the first quarter of 2025 (see Chart 2). During the next quarter, the demand for housing and consumer loans is expected to remain unchanged.
During the first quarter of 2025, the ratio of rejected applications for housing loans and consumer credit remained unchanged (see Chart 3).
Chart 1 - Credit Standards (Average)
Chart 2 - Demand (Average)
Chart 3 - Share of rejected applications (Average)
Related information:
The next Press Release on the “Bank Lending Survey” for Q2 2025 will be published on 22 July 2025, in accordance with the Advance release calendar published on the Bank of Greece website.
Related links:
More on the Bank Lending Survey
Methodology