Banking statistics for July 2025
Commentary by Miroslav Zámečník, Chief Advisor of the Czech Banking Association
Households
Consumer loans
The total volume of consumer loans (including overdrafts and credit card balances) reached CZK 378.5 billion in July, an increase of almost 1.3% month-on-month and a nice 9.6% year-on-year increase. Both show that consumers are not afraid to take out bank consumer loans, the dynamics of which have been multiplying the consumer price index for more than two years. They are not doing so recklessly - for example, high-interest outstanding balances on credit cards have stagnated year-on-year, indicating that their users are being cautious in taking out this form of credit. It should be added, however, that "credit cards" are not nearly as popular with Czech clients as debit cards, which dominate by a ratio of about 12:1. The proportion of bank consumer loans with repayment difficulties ('non-performing'), at 4.26% in July, is not far removed from the levels achieved over the last three years and is at a very acceptable level.
Mortgages
Last year's jump in the volume of mortgage originations continues this year, albeit at a more moderate pace. According to the CBA's proprietary Hypomonitor data, updated monthly, new mortgage originations in July were in the range of CZK 30 billion compared to CZK 29.4 billion in June, while the volume of refinancing or increases was CZK 7.8 billion, down slightly month-on-month from June's CZK 8.1 billion. The decline in interest rates on new mortgages virtually halted, from 4.60% in May to 4.56% in June and 4.53% in July. If the current interest in mortgage loans continues, the total volume of new mortgages could reach CZK 297 billion this year, compared to CZK 228 billion last year, so the CBA's estimate for total production has increased by several billion month-on-month.
Interest in loans from building savings
Where we are seeing an even more pronounced growth curve is in loans from building savings, which grew faster than both mortgages and consumer loans in July on an annual average basis, by a full 14.4%. Those seeking unsecured long-term loans for housing and renovation or equipment purchases benefited from significantly lower interest rates (the rate on new business was 5.11% in July) compared to consumer loans (the rate on new business was 8.2%). In terms of repayment reliability, building society loans, with a non-performing ratio of 2.28%, outperformed pure consumer bank loans by around two percentage points at 4.26%.
Perfectly repayable mortgages
Unlike mortgages, building society loans are not guaranteed by mortgaging the property, which explains the difference from the exceptional discipline of borrowers in the case of mortgage repayments, whose share was at a low in July with 0.58%, but has been oscillating at around this level for the last three years. As a result, we are consistently among the countries with the best payment morality in Europe.
As regards loans granted by banks to sole traders, the share of non-performing loans in July remained within sight of the historical best figure (4.09%) in the last 23 years, at 4.13%. Incidentally, this is roughly a third of the share compared to ten years ago.
Non-financial corporations
If we look at the development of corporate loan balances, we see a relatively strong month-on-month decline of more than CZK 41.7 billion to CZK 1 436 billion. At the same time, July's new loan production reached CZK 70 billion, of which 48 were in koruna and the rest, the equivalent of CZK 22 billion, was denominated in euro (the difference between balances 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 3.5%, the small interest differential probably explains the waning interest in euro financing.
The share of non-performing corporate loans, i.e. those with repayment difficulties lasting more than 90 days, increased by almost a tenth of a percentage point month-on-month to 2.66%, which is, however, an above-average figure in international comparison. Together with the high level of corporate deposits, it suggests that at an aggregate level, "corporates" remain healthy, albeit financially very 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 personal deposits has bottomed out in the last few years in the 2022 half-year, has risen almost every month since then, and we have seen a slowdown since about May last year, with July at +5%. Nominal deposits are at a record high of CZK 3 trillion and CZK 756 billion, and according to the National Accounts statistics, Czech households continue to maintain a savings rate half the long-running pre-recession average despite the downward trend.
The population still holds a huge amount of funds in essentially non-interest-bearing current accounts, over CZK 1 trillion and 274 billion in July. While this is essentially flat year-on-year in real terms, it is also the equivalent of fifteen percent of this year's forecast GDP(!), and an amount far beyond the safe liquidity buffer. 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.
A fall in the savings rate and current account balances in favour of other forms of savings would be two pieces of good news at once: firstly, it would document the rise in financial literacy and the search for higher returns, and the eventual fall in the national savings rate would boost the population's domestic consumption beyond its labour or business income.
Turning to non-financial corporations, here we record a significant month-on-month decline in deposits of public corporations (by CZK 13.9 billion) and foreign-controlled corporations (by CZK 9.3 billion), while deposits of native private firms rose slightly month-on-month. Although the result for total non-financial corporations is negative by C20.6 billion compared to June 2025, given that the month-on-month balance of corporate loans fell by the aforementioned C41.7 billion, non-financial corporations continue to maintain a significantly positive position in deposits over loans drawn.
The balance between deposits and loans thus rose from CZK 118 billion in June to CZK 127 billion in July. Before the pandemic, it was always negative, especially in good times, as enterprises investing in operations and capacity expansion understandably worked with credit and did not leave spare cash lying in accounts, as they were able to capitalise on their own activity much better. Cash hoarding is a symptom of continued uncertainty, and the exact opposite of dynamic economic development. We are still waiting here for the return of the predatory entrepreneurial instinct.
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