–BOE: Q1 Corporate Credit Available Next 3M net 7.8% vs 4.8% Q4
–BOE: Q1 Secured Household Credit Available net 2.8% vs 3.4% Q4}
–BOE Secured H’hold Credit Available Next 3M 14.6% vs 2.7% Q4}
LONDON (MNI) – Credit availability remained broadly unchanged in Q1
with corporate credit availability forecast to increase gently over the
next three months, the Bank of England’s latest survey found.
But secured household credit availability is forecast to rise at a
faster rate. The net percentage balance of lenders expecting credit to
increase rising to 14.6%, up from 2.7% in Q4 2010.
A net 2.8% reported an increase in secured credit availability to
households in the first quarter, in line with the forecast for Q1
contained in the Q4 report.
Unsecured lending available to households and small businesses
returned to growth in Q1, having fallen 7.7% in Q4. This is only the
second quarter in which unsecured credit balance has been positive since
the series began in Q2 2007.
Corporate credit availability is also expected to rise over the
next three months. A net 7.8% of lenders said they expected corporate
credit availability to increase in the over the next three months,
compared to a net 4.8% who had predicted a decline in the first quarter.
Lenders also reported that the default rate on secured loans to
households increased unexpectedly over the previous quarter, and was
expected to increase further over the next three months.
Default rates on unsecured loans were reported to have fallen for
the sixth successive quarter. But losses given default credit card loans
increased in Q1 2011, and were expected to increase over the coming
quarter, the BOE said.
–London newsroom: tel+44 207 862 7492; email:
ukeditorial@marketnews.com
[TOPICS: M$B$$$,M$$BE$,MABPR$,MT$$$$]