Financial corporations, balance sheet, September 2007

Preliminary numbers for September show that financial corporations’ - including banks, state lending institutions, credit enterprises/mortgage companies, finance companies, and the central bank (Norges Bank), - total loans to households have increased by NOK 174 billion compared with the same period last year. Compared with the previous quarter, total loans have increased by NOK 44 billion. The credit indicator ( C2 ) for September shows that there is a slower growth rate in households’ debt in September compared with the past few months.

House loans amount to nearly 80 per cent

House related loans accounts for nearly 80 per cent of financial corporations’ total loans to households. Repayment loans secured on dwellings accounts for approximately 70 per cent, while credit lines secured on dwellings accounts for the remaining 10 per cent. Financial corporations’ stock of house related loans was NOK 1297 billion at end-September. This is an increase of NOK 148 billion compared to the same period last year, and an increase of NOK 30 billion from the second quarter of 2007. This amounts to a percentage growth of respectively 13 and 2.4 per cent. The growth occurs in spite of decreasing sales of new houses and apartments lately, and a somewhat slower housing market in general. One indication of this is the house price index ( hpi ) which shows that Norwegian house prices fell by 1.5 per cent from the second to the third quarter of 2007

Credit lines secured on dwelling’s growth nearly halved

Credit lines secured on dwellings have increased rapidly since it was broadly introduced to the market in January 2006. Preliminary numbers for September show that these loans still increases, but the growth is slower than in previous periods. Financial corporations’ stock of credit lines secured on dwellings was NOK 162 billion at end-September. This is an increase of nearly NOK 90 billion, or 122 per cent compared with September 2006. Compared with the previous quarter these loans have increased by NOK 18 billion, which amounts to a percentage growth of 12.5 per cent. This is the lowest percentage growth for credit lines secured on dwellings since this type of loan was included in the statistics. The growth is nearly halved compared with the second quarter of 2007.

Financial corporations’ stock of repayment loans secured on dwellings increased by nearly NOK 60 billion from September 2006 to September this year. This amounts to a growth of 5.5 per cent. Compared with the second quarter of 2007 these repayment loans have increased by NOK 12 billion, barely 1 per cent.