Bank lending survey for the euro area
Glossary
To assist respondent banks in filling out the questionnaire, this glossary defines the most important terminology used in the bank lending survey.
Capital
Defined in accordance with the regulatory requirements set out in the CRR/CRD IV, which transposes the global standards on bank capital (i.e. the Basel III agreement) into the EU legal framework and entered into force on 1 January 2014. It includes both tier 1 capital and tier 2 capital (supplementary capital).
Collateral
The security given by a borrower to a lender as a pledge for the repayment of a loan. This could include certain financial securities, such as equity or debt securities, real estate or compensating balances. A compensating balance is the minimum amount of a loan that the borrower is required to keep in an account at the bank.
Consumer confidence
Consumers’ assessments of economic and financial trends in a particular country and/or in the euro area. They include assessments of the past and current financial situation of households and resulting (income) prospects for the future, assessments of the past and current general political and economic situation and resulting prospects for the future and assessments of the advisability of making residential investments (question 19), particularly in terms of affordability, and/or major purchases of durable consumer goods (question 20). In this sense, an increase in consumer confidence would tend to lead to an increase in the demand for loans.
Consumer credit and other lending
Consumer credit is defined as loans granted for mainly personal consumption of goods and services. Typical examples of loans in this category are loans granted for the financing of motor vehicles, furniture, domestic appliances and other consumer durables, holiday travel, etc. Overdrafts and credit card loans also typically belong in this category. "Consumer credit and other lending" to households also includes loans to sole proprietors and partnerships (see 16. Households). Loans included in this category may or may not be collateralised by various forms of security or guarantee.
Consumption expenditure financed through real-estate guaranteed loans
“Consumption expenditure financed through real-estate guaranteed loans” should be treated as consumer credit, even though such loans are guaranteed by real estate assets, as the purpose of these loans is consumption. Consumption expenditure financed through real-estate guaranteed loans represents mortgage equity withdrawal, leading to higher non-housing related consumption.
Cost of funds and balance sheet constraints
The bank’s capital and the cost related to the bank’s capital position can become a balance sheet constraint that may inhibit the expansion of its lending. For a given level of capital, the bank’s loan supply could be affected by its liquidity position and its access to money and debt markets. Similarly, a bank could abstain from granting a loan, or be less willing to lend, if it knows that it will not be able subsequently to transfer the risk (synthetic securitisation) or the entire asset (true-sale securitisation) off its balance sheet. Moreover, risks related to non-performing loans may be reflected not only in the bank's risk perceptions, but also in its cost of funds and balance sheet constraints.
Covenant
A covenant is an agreement or stipulation expressed in loan contracts, particularly contracts with enterprises, by which the borrower pledges to take certain action (an affirmative covenant) or refrain from taking certain action (a negative covenant), and is consequently part of the terms and conditions of a loan.
Credit line
A credit line is a facility with a stated maximum amount which an enterprise is entitled to borrow from a bank at any given time. In the survey, a broad definition of credit lines should be applied, in which the information on the demand for new credit lines, and also on the use of credit lines previously granted, but not yet used, would be taken into account in assessing developments of loan demand.
Credit standards
Credit standards are the internal guidelines or loan approval criteria of a bank. Both requests for new loans and loan refinancing, i.e. leading to a prolongation of a loan or a higher loan amount, should be considered. Credit standards are established prior to the actual loan negotiation on the terms and conditions and the actual loan approval/rejection decision. They define the types of loan a bank considers desirable and undesirable, the designated sectoral or geographic priorities, the collateral deemed acceptable and unacceptable, etc. Credit standards specify the required borrower characteristics (e.g. balance sheet conditions, income situation, age, employment status) under which a loan can be obtained. In the survey, both changes in written loan policies and their application should be considered. Credit standards may change owing to changes in the bank’s cost of funds and balance sheet situation, changes in competition, changes in the bank’s risk perception, changes in the bank’s risk tolerance or regulatory changes, for instance.
Credit terms and conditions
Credit terms and conditions refer to the conditions of a loan that a bank is willing to grant, i.e. to the terms and conditions of the (new or refinanced) loan actually approved as laid down in the loan contract which was agreed between the bank (the lender) and the borrower. They generally consist of the agreed lending rate, the spread over a relevant market reference rate (loan margin), the size of the loan, the access conditions and other terms and conditions in the form of non-interest rate charges (i.e. fees), collateral or guarantees which the respective borrower needs to provide (including compensating balances), loan covenants and the agreed loan maturity. Credit terms and conditions can change depending on the borrower’s characteristics. Furthermore, they can change due to the pass-through of alterations to market interest rates via the bank lending channel. Credit terms and conditions may change in parallel with credit standards or independently of them. For instance, an increase in the bank’s funding cost or a deterioration in the general economic outlook can lead to both a tightening in the approval criteria (credit standards) and a tightening of the terms and conditions on those loans that the bank is willing to approve and its customers are willing to accept. Alternatively, the bank may only change its credit terms and conditions (e.g. increasing the required spread to compensate for the additional cost/risk) and leave credit standards unchanged.
Debt refinancing/restructuring and renegotiation
“Debt refinancing/restructuring and renegotiation” as a factor for loan demand refers to loan refinancing, loan restructuring and/or loan renegotiations that lead to an increase or prolongation of the amount borrowed. This includes the use of debt restructuring to avoid defaulting on existing debt (the avoidance of default being interpreted as an increase in demand), for instance via extending the maturity of the loan to avoid possible payment difficulties at maturity. At the same time, for assessing changes in loan demand, it should not include loan refinancing, restructuring and/or loan renegotiations which lead only to a change in the terms and conditions of the loan other than the loan size or the maturity of the loan.
Debt restructuring should not be interpreted as the switching between different types of debt (such as loans from monetary financial institutions (MFIs) and debt securities; this is already captured under the factor "Issuance/redemption of debt securities”), capital restructuring (substitution between debt and equity) or share buy-backs (already captured under the factor “Issuance/redemption of equity”). Meanwhile, debt restructuring in the form of inter-company loans is already covered by the factor “Loans from non-banks”.
Demand for loans
Loan demand refers to gross demand for loans from enterprises or households, including loan rollovers, but apart from normal seasonal fluctuations. It refers to the bank loan financing need of enterprises and households, independent of whether this need will result in a loan or not. Banks should assess the evolution of the bank loan financing need of enterprises and households in nominal terms (i.e. independent of price-level developments) and with reference to the financing need prevailing in the previous quarter (i.e. banks should not assess the evolution of financing needs relative to historical averages or other reference values such as sales targets). Demand for loans can change either due to a shift of the demand curve (while the price remains constant) or due to a movement along the demand curve (i.e. because of a change in the price). This implies that both a higher and a constant positive growth rate qualify as increase in loan demand.
Down payment
The down payment captures the share of internal finance in a household’s real estate investment, i.e. the share financed via the household’s own funds, and is thus one factor determining the demand for loans to households for house purchase. The higher the household’s internal finance out of its wealth, the higher the down payment and the smaller the household’s demand for loans for house purchase.
Diffusion index
The diffusion index is defined as the difference between the weighted sum of the percentages of banks responding “tightened considerably” and “tightened somewhat”, and the weighted sum of the percentages of banks responding “eased considerably” and “eased somewhat”. Regarding demand for loans, the diffusion index is defined as the difference between the weighted sum of the percentages of banks responding “increased considerably” and “increased somewhat”, and the weighted sum of the percentages of banks responding “decreased considerably” and “decreased somewhat”. The diffusion index is weighted according to the intensity of the response, giving lenders who have answered “considerably” a weight twice as high (score of 1) as lenders having answered “somewhat” (score of 0.5).
Enterprises
In this context, enterprises are non-financial corporations, i.e., in line with the Eurostat definition, institutional units whose distributive and financial transactions are distinct from those of their owners and which are market producers, whose principal activity is the production of goods and non-financial services. These can be public and private corporations, as well as quasi-corporations. Quasi-corporations have no independent legal status, but keep a complete set of accounts and have an economic and financial behaviour that is different from that of their owners and similar to that of corporations. Sole proprietorships and partnerships are included in the household sector (see “Households”).
Enterprise size
The distinction between large and small and medium-sized enterprises is based on annual net turnover. A firm is considered large if its annual net turnover is more than €50 million.
Households
In line with the Eurostat definition, households are individuals or groups of individuals acting as consumers and possibly also as entrepreneurs producing market goods and non-financial and financial services (market producers) provided that, in the latter case, the corresponding activities are not those of separate entities treated as quasi-corporations (see “Enterprises”). Non-profit institutions serving households are included in the household sector.
Housing market prospects, including expected house price developments
In question 11, “housing market prospects, including expected house price developments” refers to the risk related to the collateral demanded. In question 19, it refers to expected developments in the housing market, including an increase (decrease) in demand for housing loans owing to an expected increase (decrease) in the cost of buying a house and/or in the perceived returns from investing in property.
Loans
The loans covered by the bank lending survey are those granted to euro area residents by domestic branches, including loans or credit lines to enterprises, loans to households for house purchase, and consumer credit and other lending to households.
The definition of loans is that given in Regulation (EU) No 1071/2013 of the ECB of 24 September 2013 concerning the balance sheet of the monetary financial institutions sector (recast) (ECB/2013/33). However, interbank loans should be excluded. Following this definition, financial (but not operating) leases granted by an MFI are to be recorded as loans. For the purposes of the survey, factoring, if provided by an MFI, should also be treated as a loan. Financial leasing and factoring offered by institutions other than MFIs should not be included.
Loan application
Ideally, loan applications should cover formal loan applications as well as any informal loan requests which have not yet reached the stage of a formal loan application. If information on informal loan requests cannot be obtained, the bank's response should at least refer to all formal loan applications. It should be referred to the volume of loan applications. Loan applications can be from both new and existing bank clients. However, applications from existing clients should be included only if the volume of an ongoing loan increases or a new loan is granted.
Loan rejection
"Loan rejection" refers to the rejection (as opposed to the approval) of the volume of formal loan applications or of loan requests. If information on the latter is unavailable, the bank's response should at least refer to all formal loan applications which have been rejected. It should be referred to the volume of loan rejections relative to the volume of loan applications/requests. Loan rejections do not include cases in which the borrower withdraws a loan application/request because the bank's conditions are considered unfavourable.
Loan margin/spread over a relevant market reference rate
The loan margin of a bank should be understood as the spread over a relevant market reference rate (e.g. EURIBOR, LIBOR or the interest rate swap of a corresponding maturity for fixed rate loans), depending on the characteristics of the loan. Such a spread would capture changes in the bank’s lending rates related to changes in the bank’s funding cost as well as in borrower risk, i.e. changes in the bank’s lending rates which are not related to variations of market rates (like EURIBOR or LIBOR). In detail, the spread would capture changes in the bank’s risk premium in its own market-based funding cost (e.g. in bank bond yields), changes in the bank’s deposit funding cost, changes in the bank’s risk assessment of borrowers, as well as changes in any other add-on factor not related to variations of market rates.
Loan-to-value ratio
The ratio of the amount borrowed to the appraisal or market value of the underlying collateral, usually taken into consideration in relation to loans used for real estate financing.
Marketing campaigns
Marketing campaigns should be interpreted as a factor affecting loan supply only when credit standards or credit conditions change. If this is not the case, marketing campaigns may be understood as a factor with a possible impact on loan demand. In this instance, respondents should indicate the role of marketing campaigns under “Other factors” in questions 7, 19 and 20 on the factors affecting loan demand.
Maturity
The concept of maturity used in questions 1, 6, 8 and 9 of the bank lending survey is original maturity, and only two different types are used, i.e. short-term and long-term. Short-term loans are loans with an original maturity of one year or less and, consequently, long-term loans are loans that have an original maturity of more than one year.
Net percentage (or balance)
In the context of credit standards, the net percentage is defined as the difference between the sum of the percentages of banks responding “tightened considerably” and “tightened somewhat”, and the sum of the percentages of banks responding “eased considerably” and “eased somewhat”. Regarding demand for loans, the net percentage is defined as the difference between the sum of the percentages of banks responding “increased considerably” and “increased somewhat”, and the sum of the percentages of banks responding “decreased considerably” and “decreased somewhat”.
Non-banks
In general, these are non-monetary financial corporations. More specifically, they include insurance corporations and pension funds, financial auxiliaries and other financial intermediaries.
Non-interest rate charges
These are various kinds of fees which can be part of the pricing of a loan, such as commitment fees on revolving loans, administration fees (e.g. document preparation costs) and charges for enquiries, guarantees and credit insurance.
Perception of risk and risk tolerance
Perception of risk refers to the bank's perception of actual risk and its reaction to developments related to the general economic situation and outlook, the industry or firm-specific situation and outlook, the borrower's creditworthiness, as well as the collateral demanded (demand-side factors). By contrast, risk tolerance refers to the risk tolerance of the bank in its lending policy, which may alter due to changes in the bank's underlying business strategy (supply-side factors). Banks' perception of actual risk and their risk tolerance may either change in line with each other or move in different directions.