Loans in Cyprus drop in March to lowest point since 2009

By Stelios Orphanides

Loans in the banking system dropped in March by €617.6m in a month to €57.5bn, which is the lowest since December 2009, as deposits fell for the first time in four months, the Central Bank of Cyprus said.

In March, deposits fell by €95.5m to €45.7bn, the central bank said in a statement on its website on Wednesday. As a result, the difference between loans and deposits shrank to €11.8bn, which is the narrowest since May 2013, two months after the bail-in.

The drop in outstanding loans in March was mainly on loan repayments by financial corporations, which reduced their lending by €376.9m to €7.9bn, the central bank said. Loans to non-financial companies and households fell by €98.4bn and €138.5m, to €25.5bn and €23.2bn respectively.

The outflow in deposits last month was mainly on a monthly €150.3m drop in deposits held by non-financial companies at Cypriot banks to €10.1bn, the central bank said. Household deposits fell by €58.4m to €27.7bn. The overall drop in deposits was partly offset by an increase held by financial corporations at Cypriot banks by €127.4m to €5.5bn.

Since March 2013, when Bank of Cyprus depositors saw almost half of their uninsured deposits turned into equity and Cyprus Popular Bank uninsured depositors lost all their money in excess of €100,000 held at the lender, total deposits fell by €18bn, while total loans dropped by €12.8bn.