Europe’s banks aren’t stress-free.
Consumers and businesses had a harder time getting loans in the second quarter, the European Central Bank reported Tuesday. Lending terms tightened, particularly for businesses, even as demand increased, the ECB said.
The central bank attributed the shift to the market unrest that prompted bank supervisors last week to publish the results of their stress tests of the region’s biggest banks. The exercise revealed seven banks had a capital shortfall of around $4.5 billion, though many observers say many more institutions will have to raise much more money to ease fears about the sector’s health.
“The factors contributing to the reinforced net tightening of loans to enterprises relate to the deterioration of banks’ own balance sheet situation, particularly as regards their liquidity position and access to wholesale funding,” the ECB said in its quarterly bank lending survey.
The ECB said the net percentage of banks saying they tightened lending standards for businesses rose to 11% in the latest quarter from 3% in the first quarter. Demand for business loans improved, meanwhile, with a net 2% of banks reporting weaker demand, vs. 13% in April’s survey.
About 5% of banks expect business lending standards to tighten further in the third quarter, the central bank said.
The ECB’s findings weren’t universally dim. Demand for consumer housing loans surged into positive territory, with 24% of banks saying it improved. Demand for general consumer credit was barely positive but much better than last quarter, improving to a positive 1% from minus 13% in April.
And as much criticism as the stress tests have come in for, it seems clear they have strengthened the hands of the region’s strongest banks. Barclays is up more than 10% since the results were released and Deutsche Bank is up 8%.
But the survey won’t quell worries about the sustainability of a weak economic recovery in Europe, even as policymakers open the monetary floodgates to keep banks liquid and fend off another crisis.
“Even with liquidity abundant in financial markets, money continues to fail to reach the real economy beyond financial institutions,” writes Tullett Prebon economist Lena Komileva. “De-risking in the banking sector means that European lenders are not putting their money in the ‘concerns about a double-dip are exaggerated’ camp.”