(Teleborsa) – The rates on mortgages amounted to 1.47% in August 2021, up from 1.40% in July (5.72% at the end of 2007), those on new business financing 1.08% (1.05% the previous month; 5.48% at the end of 2007), while the average rate on total loans it was 2.19% (same value in the previous month and 6.18% before the crisis, at the end of 2007). These are the data that emerge from the monthly report of ABI, the Italian Banking Association, in which it is emphasized that “the interest rates on financing transactions remain at particularly low levels, at historic lows”.
In August 2021, loans to businesses and households increased by 2.3% compared to a year ago, according to ABI’s calculations on data published by the Bank of Italy. In July 2021, for i business loans there was an increase of 1.7% on an annual basis. The increase is 3.8% for i loans to households.
With regard to credit quality, the report highlights that the net bad debts (i.e. net of write-downs and provisions already made by banks with their own resources) in July 2021 they amounted to € 17.9 billion, down from the € 24.6 billion in July 2020 (-6.8 billion equal to -27 , 4%) and 31.9 billion in July 2019 (-14.1 billion equal to -44.1%). Compared to the maximum level of net bad loans, reached in November 2015 (88.8 billion), the reduction is 71 billion (equal to -79.9%). The ratio of net non-performing loans to total loans is equal to 1.03% in July 2021, (it was 1.41% in July 2020, 1.83% in July 2019 and 4.89% in November 2015).
In Italy, in August 2021, the dynamics of overall collection (deposits from resident customers and bonds) grew by + 6.0% on an annual basis. THE deposits (current account, certificates of deposit, repurchase agreements) increased, in the same month, by approximately 128 billion euros compared to a year earlier (variation equal to + 7.7% on an annual basis), while and long term, that is, through bonds, has fallen, in the last 12 months, by approximately 14 billion euro in absolute value (equal to -6.1%).
The ABI states that, again in the eighth month of the year, the average interest rate on total bank deposits from customers (sum of deposits, bonds and repurchase agreements in euro to households and non-financial companies) is 0.46% in Italy, (0.45% in the previous month) due to: the rate applied on deposits (current accounts, deposits savings and certificates of deposit) at 0.31% (same value in the previous month); the repo rate, which stood at 1% (1.44% the previous month); of the yield on outstanding bonds, 1.79% (same value in the previous month).
The margine (spread) between the average rate on loans and the average rate on deposits from households and non-financial companies “remains in Italy at particularly low levels”, underlines the report. In August 2021 it was 173 basis points (174 basis points in the previous month), a marked decline from over 300 basis points before the financial crisis (335 basis points at the end of 2007).
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