European Economic Perspectives: Eurozone: How is bank lending holding up?

Research evidence excerpt

European Economic Perspectives: Eurozone: How is bank lending holding up?

Global Research

29 June 2026ab

European Economic Perspectives Economics

Europe Ex. UKEurozone: How is bank lending holding up?

Anna Titareva

Economist

Private credit growth picks up to 3.9% y/y, largely driven by NFCs anna.titareva@ubs.com

+44-20-7568 5083

Monetary and credit dynamics have been followed closely in recent years to scrutinise

the impact of ECB monetary policy tightening, subsequent easing and now also the Reinhard Cluse

Economistimpact of the conflict in the Middle East. In this report, we analyse the newly released

reinhard.cluse@ubs.com

Eurozone monetary and credit data for May, which showed a 0.4pp increase in private +44-20-7568 6722

sector credit growth to 3.9% y/y, the highest in more than three years. Loans to non-

financial corporations (NFCs) rose 0.6pp to 4% y/y, while household loan growth ticked Franziska Fischer

up 0.1pp to 3.1% y/y. However, sequential momentum (3m moving average of m/m

franziska.fischer@ubs.com

growth) for aggregate private sector was broadly unchanged. Monetary aggregates +41-44-239 2054

showed a broad-based pick up, with M3 up 0.5pp to 3.2% y/y. See annex for data,

charts and concepts. Felix Huefner

felix.huefner@ubs.com

Loans to NFC +0.6pp to 4% y/y, loans to households +0.1pp to 3.1% y/y +49-69-1369 8280

The growth in total credit by Monetary and Financial Institutions (MFI) rose 0.4pp to

2.4% y/y in May. Public sector credit growth was up by 0.5pp to +0.1% y/y, while

private sector lending (adjusted for loan sales and securitisation) increased 0.4pp to

3.9% y/y, the highest since March 2023. Within the private sector, loans to NFCs rose

0.6pp to 4% y/y, while household loans ticked up 0.1pp to 3.1% y/y. On the household