June lending flat, mortgage rates at historic low

(ANSA) - Rome, July 19 - Bank loans were flat in June, the Italian Banking Association (ABI) said in its monthly report out Tuesday. Lending to families and businesses added 0.04% compared to 0.33% in May and -0.22% in June 2015. Overall lending including that to the public sector was -0.3%. Also in June, mortgage interest rates fell to a new historic low of 2.21% compared to 2.25% in May and 5.72% in 2007. Two-thirds of new mortgages have fixed rates, ABI reported. Overall mortgage loans to families added 1.5% in May over the same period the previous year. "This confirms the mortgage market is in recovery," according to ABI. May non-performing loans (NPLs) net of devaluations already carried out by banks with the their in-house resources totalled 85 billion euros compared to 84 billion euros in April. Net NPLs made up 4.72% of total loans extended in May 2016 and 4.67% in April, compared to 4.93% at the end of 2015 and 0.86% before the economic crisis began in 2008.