Banking statistics for August 2025
Commentary by Miroslav Zámečník, Chief Advisor of the Czech Banking Association
Households
Consumer loans
The total volume of consumer loans (excluding overdrafts and credit card balances) reached CZK 356.45 billion in August, an increase of 1% month-on-month and a high 10.5% year-on-year. Both confirm what the macroeconomic statistics say, namely that economic growth is currently being driven by consumption, with people unafraid to borrow for these purposes at a rate exceeding both wage growth and nominal retail sales. Overdrafts and debit balances on current accounts grew even faster than consumer credit (by 11.2% year-on-year), while high-interest outstanding credit card balances fell year-on-year and month-on-month.
However, credit cards are a strongly "minority genre" in this country, unlike the popular debit cards in Anglo-Saxon countries. At 4.27% in August, the proportion of bank consumer loans showing difficulties in repayment ('non-performing') was not far from the levels achieved over the last three years, and we can speak of a steadily solid repayment performance.
The old song about perfect mortgage repayment
The increase in the volume of mortgages granted continues this year, albeit at a more moderate pace. According to the CBA's own Hypomonitor data, which is updated on a monthly basis, new mortgages were granted in the range of almost CZK 26 billion in August, compared to a very strong July with CZK 30 billion, but we are still talking about a high volume compared to the spring months. Mortgage rates have fallen by a microscopic one hundredth of a percentage point to 4.52% compared to July, and to the small delight of mortgage seekers, they have not wanted to fall for several months in a row, yet they are not deterring clients. The total volume of new mortgages could reach CZK 300 billion this year, up from 228 billion last year, and that doesn't include refinanced mortgages, which add 22% to total volumes. Yet the main wave of refixes and refinancing is yet to come, currently being arranged at 4.5%. It has become an obligatory assurance that mortgage repayments in the Czech Republic are exceptionally good in European comparison; the percentage of non-performing mortgages is 0.57%, the lowest in a year, but we have been close to this level for the last three years.
In the case of loans granted by banks to sole traders, August was marked by a new absolute low in the share of non-performing loans in at least 23 years, at 4.06%, and this is only because the CNB's banking statistics do not show a longer time series. All of the 4.10% and better figures are from this year; a decade ago they were roughly triple that.
Non-financial sector enterprises
If we look at the development of corporate loan balances, we see a solid month-on-month rise of almost 1.6% to CZK 1,458 billion, up by more than 22.4 billion to CZK 48.2 billion in nominal terms and up by a not insignificant 3.4% year-on-year. Meanwhile, the August production of new loans amounted to CZK 68 billion, of which CZK 48 billion were denominated in koruna and the rest, the equivalent of CZK 21 billion, was denominated in euro (the difference between stocks and monthly production is due to the repayment of old loans). Interest rates on new koruna business were 4.4% in June, while euro loans were at 2.9%, but the interest in euro financing has weakened year-on-year, while the volume of koruna loans to businesses has risen by a tenth.
The share of non-performing corporate loans, i.e. those with repayment difficulties lasting more than 90 days, was again at 2.58%, down quite significantly month-on-month from 2.66% in July. Anything below 3% is, however, an above-average figure in international comparison. Together with the high level of corporate deposits, it suggests that "corporates" as a whole are very healthy, albeit financially all the more conservative.
Development of the main segments of the credit market (year-on-year, %)
Source: CNB, CBA Monitor
Deposits
The year-on-year growth rate of the population's deposits has bottomed out in the first half of 2022, rising almost every month since then to values in excess of 8%, and since about May last year we have seen a slowdown, although it picked up to 5.1% in August. Nominal deposits are at a record high of CZK 3 trillion and CZK 771 billion, up 5% year-on-year, but still an increase of CZK 180 billion in absolute terms!
Certainly, with the fall in interest rates, investment products such as equity funds with more attractive returns are growing much more dynamically, but the conservatism of Czech households is proverbial and despite all the shift in perception of risk and return, people still have a huge amount of funds in current accounts. In August, it was CZK 1.276 trillion, the equivalent of fifteen per cent of this year's forecast GDP(!). By comparison, households and institutions had CZK 1.29 trillion invested in domestic and foreign collective investment funds offered in the Czech Republic at the end of June.
As for non-financial corporations, here we record a significant month-on-month decline in deposits of public corporations (by 3%, nominally CZK 4.5 billion) and foreign-controlled corporations (by 2.3%, or CZK 8 billion), while deposits of native private corporations increased by less than CZK 7 billion month-on-month. While the result for total non-financial corporates is negative by CZK 5.6 billion compared to July 2025, firms continue to hold a significantly positive position in deposits over loans drawn, albeit down to CZK 109 billion after CZK 127 billion in July. Prior to the pandemic, the balance was always negative, especially in good times, as businesses investing in operations and capacity expansion worked with credit that raised capital appreciation and returns on profitable investments (equity is priced significantly higher in investment decision-making than the current Crown interest rate on corporate loans of 4.4% p.a.). The rapid increase in credit activity and the decline in this balance will be a sign that the days of risk-taking and investment-averse businesses have returned. However, we are not quite there yet.
Development of deposits in the main segments (year-on-year, %)
Source: CNB, CBA Monitor
Non-performing loans in main segments (%)
Source: CNB, CBA Monitor
Share of non-performing loans in EU/EEA countries (%, Q1, 2025)
Source: EBA