Bank delinquency fell again last June and again removes the ghost of a possible increase in defaults due to the rise in financing rates. According to the provisional data published by the Bank of Spain this Friday, the doubtful ratio (this is how loans that accumulate more than three months of non-payment are classified) fell to the level of 3.5% for the country’s banking sector as a whole. , between banks and savings banks, whose ratio stands at 3.39%, and credit institutions, whose rate was 6.33%.
The trend is back on track again to the downside after it signed its third consecutive month of rises in May, reaching 3.59%. This is a decrease in the doubtful figure of 38 basis points compared to June 2022 when the European Central Bank (ECB) still kept official rates at 0%. Since then, the situation has taken a 180-degree turn, with nine consecutive rises in the price of money in the Eurozone that have led to 2008 highs in financing costs, with a binding rate for lending in 4 .25% and bringing the official deposit rate up to 3.75% at the last meeting in July.
With the latest published data, this drop in the delinquency rate is explained by a cut of 655 million euros in the total volume of doubtful loans of the national banking sector, reaching 42,173 million euros in June. It is the least amount that has been recorded since July 2008. If compared to June of last year, the fall is 5,743 million euros.
Likewise, and despite the fact that the purchase of housing has been contained due to higher rates [el Euríbor, principal referencia para las hipotecas, se encuentra en niveles del 4,1%], the credit granted grew by 13,667 million euros, up to a total of 1.2 billion euros. It does make itself felt, however, the lower demand for loans by Spaniards in its annual comparison since it fell by almost 29,000 million euros compared to June of last year.
In the case of banks, savings banks and cooperatives, the default rate was contained to 3.39%, at annual lows after three consecutive months of rise. In May this same reference was at 3.49%, according to data from the Bank of Spain. In total, the banks hoard 1.15 trillion in loans of which 600,347 million, slightly less than half, are linked to variable rates.