Corporate lending creeps higher

TALLINN - Estonia’s central bank, Eesti Pank announced in its fresh review that the stock of corporate and household loans and leasing remained relatively unchanged in June compared to May: the portfolio volume remained at the May level of 14.5 billion euros, reports LETA.
Though the stock of household loans and leasing keeps shrinking, the corporate loan and leasing portfolio has increased by 2 percent compared to end-2011.

In the first half of 2012, the volume of new corporate loans and leasing increased each month, whereas in June it was 7 percent smaller. At the same time, the turnover of the corporate loan and leasing portfolio was 16 percent higher than in June 2011, having increased the most in the trading and logistics sector within the year. Like new corporate loans, household housing loans and car leasing turnover grew as well, year-on-year, by 20 percent and 32 percent, respectively, from June 2011.

Interest rates on new loans did not change much in June. The interest rate on housing loans remained at the level of 2.9 percent. The average interest rate on corporate loans increased slightly (to 3.8 percent), but this was just normal fluctuation.

The loan portfolio quality continued improving, since the share of loans overdue by more than 60 days decreased compared to May. Overdue loans accounted for 4.4 percent in June.
Corporate and household deposits increased 10 percent, year-on-year. The volume of deposits did not change in May, however, since corporate deposits decreased just as much as household deposits increased.

Banks’ second-quarter net profit amounted to 90 million euros, which was 31 percent more than at the same time last year. Compared to the previous quarter, the net profit was 14 million euros smaller. This was mostly due to the smaller recovery of provisions for loan losses compared to the first quarter. The interest income of banks decreased as well: the net interest income was 4 million euros smaller than in the first quarter.