The Central Bank has published the Euro Area Bank Lending survey results which show that Irish banks continued to tighten their lending standards in the opening months of the year.
The survey is conducted monthly by the ECB on over 100 euro area banks who participate on a voluntary basis (5 are from Ireland).
The responses of five Irish banks suggest there was a decline in loan demand from households and businesses in the first quarter as the pattern of tighter standards continued.
The tightening of credit standards was independent of loan duration, but was stronger on loans to large firms compared with loans to SMEs.
For households, credit standards for house purchase and consumer credit and other lending tightened.