Bank Lending Survey

To enhance the knowledge of financing conditions for businesses and households, the euro area national central banks (NCBs) – and thus the Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB) in Austria – together with the European Central Bank (ECB) began to conduct quarterly surveys on euro area lending policies in January 2003. 

Given the importance of bank loans for the funding of enterprises and households, more detailed information on banks’ lending behavior is a useful instrument for a central bank in implementing monetary policy. The euro area bank lending survey is intended to provide this information. Additionally, the survey facilitates the analysis of supply and demand conditions in the credit markets, as the statistical data reported by banks do not directly reveal the reasons for changes in these conditions. Given that the survey concentrates on the current situation, it will complement banks’ regular reports on lending trends, as statistics on the latter are usually available only with a certain time lag.

The survey takes the form of a questionnaire containing qualitative questions on past and expected future developments regarding lending policies. The questionnaire consists of 18 questions concerning loans to enterprises and households. The first part contains 7 questions on loans (and credit lines) to enterprises, while the second part has 10 questions on loans to households. For households, there are separate questions for loans for house purchase and consumer credit/other lending. The questions concern areas such as credit standards and the conditions and terms for loans to enterprises and households. 13 questions are backward-looking (referring to the quarter that ended in the month prior to the survey), and 4 questions are forward-looking (referring to the current quarter); an open question is intended to capture those credit market developments that the other questions might not have covered. If necessary, further ad hoc questions on topics of specific interest may be added.

The euro area national central banks (NCBs) chose 90 representative banks from all euro area countries to participate in the bank lending survey. This choice was based on three aspects: (1) to survey a minimum of three banks per country, (2) to ensure that the number of banks surveyed per country more or less corresponds to the country’s share in the euro area total lending aggregate, and (3) to primarily contact large institutions. 

Five large Austrian credit institutions were invited to participate in the survey for Austria, which means that the Austrian sample is comparable to that of other countries of approximately the same size.

The bank lending survey takes place every January, April, July and October. In Austria, the survey is conducted electronically, with participants receiving the questionnaires via e-mail. In order to guarantee the efficient and secure transmission of answers, participants transfer the filled-in questionnaires (Excel files) to the Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB) via a special password- and user ID-protected website.

While strictly safeguarding the anonymity of the participating banks, the euro area NCBs then send the results of their respective countries to the ECB, which compiles an aggregate result for the euro area. In this process, the national results are weighted with the individual countries’ market share in lending to euro area nonbanks. An analysis of the aggregate euro area results as well as the individual country aggregates are submitted to the Governing Council of the ECB for the monetary policy meeting taking place in the month following the survey.