Banks expect an increase in demand for consumer loans and for small and medium enterprises for the last quarter of the year.

According to the Bank of Greece’s lending survey, in the third quarter of 2023, the criteria for granting loans to households remained unchanged compared to the second quarter of 2023, a development in line with the expectations expressed in the previous quarter’s survey. The overall terms of lending to households also remained unchanged.

Demand for housing loans has fallen, due to the end of the subsidized housing program “My House”while the demand for consumer loans remained almost unchanged

For the fourth quarter of 2023, demand for mortgages is expected to remain unchanged, while demand for consumer loans is expected to increase.

The criteria for granting housing and consumer loans are expected to remain unchanged during the fourth quarter of 2023.

In the third quarter of 2023, the proportion of mortgage applications that were rejected remained almost unchanged, while the corresponding proportion for consumer loans remained unchanged, compared to the previous quarter.

Regarding loans to businesses, the granting criteria remained almost unchanged compared to the second quarter of 2023, a development in line with the expectations expressed in the previous quarter’s survey. In addition, the banks estimate that the criteria will remain unchanged during the fourth quarter of 2023.

Overall business lending terms remained almost unchanged from Q2 2023, although banks’ interest margin on conventional loans narrowed to a point.

During the third quarter of 2023, the total demand for business loans remained unchanged. In the next quarter, overall loan demand is expected to remain almost unchanged, although small and medium-sized business loan demand is expected to increase to some extent.

The proportion of business loan applications rejected was unchanged from the previous quarter