Note 1
Interest rates and new business volumes are collected from credit
institutions with a significant level of lending or deposit business
with households or non-financial corporations (NFCs). The sample is
monitored to ensure compliance with ECB Regulation.
Monthly Retail Interest Rate Statistics in Tables B.1.1 to
B.2.2 cover all euro-denominated lending to, and deposits from,
households and NFCs in the euro area. New business is defined as any new
agreement during the month between the customer and the credit
institution. This agreement covers all financial contracts that specify
the interest rate for the first time, including any renegotiation of
existing business (excluding automatic renewals). These statistics are
compiled under ECB Regulation and are comparable across the euro
area.
Quarterly Retail Interest Rate Statistics in Table B.3.1 cover all
euro and non-euro denominated mortgage lending in the Republic of
Ireland only. New business refers to new mortgage lending drawdowns
during the quarter, broken down by type of interest rate (i.e. fixed,
tracker and SVR). These statistics are not compiled under ECB MFI
interest rate Regulation.
Note 2
There are a number of factors that can lead to differences between
Retail Interest Rate statistics and interest rates advertised
by resident credit institutions. These include renegotiated loans, the
inclusion of home improvement loans, and the underlying statistical
compilation methodology.
Note 3
The retail interest rate statistics are compiled using a sampling
method as outlined in the relevant ECB Regulation and Guideline. The
sampling methodology is refined and enhanced over time to maintain
alignment with relevant international standards and maintain a quality
sampling approach. In such situations, revised methodology will be
applied to historic data to ensure a consistent and coherent compilation
of data across time and to allow for time series analysis. The period of
revisions will be determined by the impact, feasibility and cost of
undertaking the revision. Occasions when methodological revision have
occurred are:
Enhancements to the calculation of the national weighted average
interest rates and national total business volumes have been introduced
in ECB Guideline (ECB/2014/15) on monetary and financial statistics.
These enhancements introduced in the Guideline involve changes to the
sampling methods. The changes made contribute to a further harmonization
of the data compilation process thus improving cross-country data
comparison. The changes apply for reference period December 2014. As a
result of these enhancements, data have been recalculated, as per the
requirements of Guideline ECB/2014/15, for previous reference
periods.
Changes applied to reduce the maximum grossing factor used in
estimating total population data. The changes reduce the potential
volatility caused by irregular high grossing factors. The impact of the
change is largely confined to new business loans to NFCs, with some
minor changes to new business consumer loans. The changes apply from
reference period April 2021. Data for previous reporting periods have
been recalculated back to February 2019. Recent data is often
provisional and may be subject to revision.
For further detail, please see the Retail
Interest Rates webpage for:
Note 4
Statistical classification of sole proprietors
In line with their treatment in ESA 2010, the Central Bank has
harmonised the treatment of sole proprietors as reported by reporting
agents across various datasets. This has resulted in a movement of loans
and deposits from the NFC to the Household sector. These amendments were
made in February 2022 with respect to reference data from February
2021.
Specifically, these changes result in an increase in loan and deposit
volume amounts reported vis-à-vis the household sector, and a decline in
balances reported vis-à-vis the NFC sector. This applies to both
outstanding and new lending volumes in Tables B.1.2 and Table B.2.1. For
lending rates, this change means that both the aggregate interest rates
on NFC loan agreements and on non-mortgage household loans has slightly
reduced. The reason for this is that, in general, loans to sole
proprietors typically attract a higher average interest rate than NFC
loans, and therefore excluding them from the NFC category results in a
slight reduction in the aggregated NFC interest rate.
Additionally, the interest rate on loans to sole proprietors is
typically lower than the average interest rate on non-mortgage household
loans, and therefore including them results in a reduction in the
aggregated interest rate on household loans ‘for other purposes’ in
Table B.2.1, and on household ‘consumer loans and other loans’ in Table
B.1.2.
Treatment of securitised loans
As a result of an update to the ECB Regulation on the balance sheet
items of credit institutions and of the monetary financial institutions
sector (recast) (ECB/2021/2), there have been changes to how certain
securitised loans are required to be classified for the purposes of
statistical reporting. The following treatment, allowed under the
previous Regulation ECB/2013/33, is no longer permitted: ‘MFIs […] may
be allowed by their NCB to exclude from the stocks […] any loans
disposed of by means of a securitisation in accordance with national
practice […]’. The removal of this derogation from the updated
Regulation ECB/2021/2 results in an increase in the reported volume of
outstanding house purchase loans in Table B.1.2.