House purchase

The main objective of the survey is to enhance the Eurosystem"s knowledge of bank lending conditions in the euro area. The BLS provides input for the ECB Governing Council"s assessment of monetary and economic developments, on which it bases its monetary policy decisions. It provides information on the lending policies of euro area banks and complements existing statistics on loans and bank lending rates with information on loan supply and demand for enterprises and households. The survey addresses issues such as credit standards for approving loans, as well as credit terms and conditions applied to new loans to enterprises and households. It also asks for an assessment of loan demand. The survey is addressed to senior loan officers of a representative sample of euro area banks and is conducted four times a year. The sample group participating in the survey comprises banks from all euro area countries and takes into account the characteristics of their respective national banking structures. For more information, please refer to the ECB website.

Statistics on interest rates applied by monetary financial institutions (except central banks and money market funds) to deposits and loans vis-á-vis households and non-financial corporations, both for New Business and Outstanding Amounts .

BSI statistics are based on either the aggregated or the consolidated balance sheet of the monetary financial institutions (MFI) sector. The aggregated balance sheet is the sum of the balance sheets of all MFIs resident in the euro area. The consolidated balance sheet is obtained by netting the aggregated balance sheet positions between MFIs in the euro area. The consolidated balance sheet provides the basis for the regular analysis of euro area monetary aggregates and counterparts.