Results of the April 2012 bank lending survey for the euro area

The European Central Bank (ECB) is publishing today its report on the results of the April 2012 bank lending survey for the euro area. The bank lending survey, which is conducted four times a year, usually at the beginning of each quarter, was developed by the Eurosystem in order to enhance the understanding of bank lending behaviour in the euro area.

The results reported in the April 2012 survey relate to changes in the first quarter of 2012 and to expectations of changes in the second quarter of 2012. Two ad hoc questions from the previous survey round were included in the questionnaire for the April 2012 survey: one question addressing the impact of the financial turmoil on access to retail and wholesale funding, and one on the impact of the sovereign debt crisis in particular.

The April 2012 bank lending survey was conducted between 23 March and 5 April 2012. In the first quarter of 2012 the size of the sample of banks surveyed was increased, with 131 banks participating in the survey. The response rate was 100%.

The report is available on the ECB’s website in the “Statistics” section under “Monetary and financial statistics”/“Surveys”/“Bank lending survey”.

For the first time, detailed data series for the aggregate euro area results as well as the country-level results in terms of net percentages and/or the diffusion index for 11 euro area countries have now been made available on the ECB’s website via the ECB’s Statistical Data Warehouse. In addition, the ECB’s website also provides links to the national results as published by the respective national central banks.