Growth in lending tapers off

Lending by Norwegian financial institutions to the public increased by NOK 21 billion in the course of the third quarter. The increase, however, is only half as big as in the second quarter. Loans now total NOK 978 billion.

Compared to the same periods last year overall lending has increased by NOK 93 million, or 11 per cent. Banks account for most of lending growth, with an increase of NOK 28 billion, or 4 per cent. Still, the increase is noticeably weaker than in the previous quarter, when it was six per cent.

Less lending by insurance companies

Both finance companies and state lending institutions showed modest increases in lending, with each issuing NOK 2 billion more in loans. Lending by insurance companies declined by NOK 11 billion despite a NOK 7 billion increase in total assets. This, however, is connected to the takeover by a commercial bank of a NOK 9 billion loan portfolio from one of the life insurance companies. Because of this, the banks have increased their market shares in loans to the public, despite weaker lending growth in this quarter.

The banks' market share at the end of the third quarter was 68 per cent. Compared to the same period last year the banks have increased their market shares by four percentage points. The insurance companies have seen a reduction of two percentage points over the same period, and their share of loans to the public now account for just four per cent.

New Statistics

Financial institutions, third quarter 1997.
Statistics are published every quarter in the Weekly Bulletin of Statistics and in Banking and Credit Statistics. Current data. More information: Ole Marius Tiedeman, tel. +47 21 09 44 68, e-mail: omt@ssb.no or Kjell Hammer, tel. +47 21 09 45 13, e-mail: klh@ssb.no.

Weekly Bulletin issue no. 50, 1997