Banking statistics for September 2025
Commentary by Miroslav Zámečník, Chief Advisor of the Czech Banking Association
Households
Consumer loans
The total volume of consumer credit (excluding overdrafts and credit card balances) reached CZK 360.5 billion in August, an increase of 1% month-on-month but a high 10.8% year-on-year. This corresponds well with the surprisingly high estimate of year-on-year GDP growth for the first three quarters (+2.7%, currently one of the best figures in Europe), which is a robust consumption by households that are also reducing their propensity to save. The good Czech cyclical data can be complemented by a fall in unemployment, which has once again reached (together with Malta) the lowest level in the EU, and dynamic wage developments - all factors that should lead to higher household optimism, a greater willingness to spend, and even to borrow for consumption. Although the external environment is not particularly favourable, consumer confidence indicators are clearly in the positive zone. Banking statistics, both on the credit uptake side and on the example of lower deposit formation by the population, confirm this. The figures are not only good, but again after several years they are behaving "textbook".
At 4.24 in September, the proportion of bank consumer loans showing difficulties in repayment ("non-performing") has fallen slightly compared to August, and is oscillating around the levels usual over the last three years, when we have always assessed the level of repayment of liabilities in this category as consistently good as well.
Thirtieth anniversary of mortgages in the Czech Republic marked by strong growth
According to the original data from the CBA Hypomonitor, banks and building societies granted a total of almost CZK 30 billion in new mortgages (CZK 29.6 billion) in September, exceeding the August level by 14% and matching the very strong volumes of new business in July this year. The development of benchmark market rates, which were rising, meant that mortgage rates had nothing to push down, and September's 4.52% represents their stagnation for several months. Year-on-year, mortgages did become cheaper by 0.44 percentage points, which, with the total mortgage amount rising by CZK 590,000 year-on-year to CZK 4.350m and an average maturity of 26.8 years (according to CNB data), means an increase in the average monthly repayment of around CZK 2,000 to CZK 23,380 per month. However, high repayments do not discourage clients, and the total "new" production this year could significantly exceed the three hundred billion mark, compared to 228 billion last year, according to an estimate by the CBA's chief economist Jaromír Šindel. And that's not counting refinanced mortgages, where the main wave of refixations and refinancing of mortgages from the record year of 2021 is yet to come.
The total balance of mortgages held by the public reached CZK 1 trillion 814 billion at the end of September, another new nominal record in a row. Only 0.56% of this volume experienced repayment difficulties lasting longer than three months, classifying mortgages as "non-performing". This proportion is also this year's low, but it has remained at this very low level across Europe for the last few years.
September was marked by two records in termsof repayment successfor loans granted by banks to sole traders. The share of non-performing loans broke the four-percent threshold for the first time with 3.96%, and is thus the lowest in at least 23 years. All the figures of 4.10% or better are from this year, and ten years ago they were roughly three times as high.
Moreover, in September, the total volume of loans to sole proprietors rose both compared to the previous month (by 609 million to 54.6 billion crowns) and year-on-year, where we register an increase of more than 10%.
Non-financial sector enterprises
If we look at the evolution of corporate loan balances, we see a solid month-on-month rise of almost one and a quarter per cent, which is, however, in absolute terms 18.1 billion to a total balance of CZK 1.474 trillion, another good month in a row after a very dynamic August. Meanwhile, September's production of new loans reached 80 billion crowns, of which 39 were in crowns and the rest, the equivalent of 41 billion crowns, was denominated in euros (the difference between the stock and the monthly production is due to the repayment of old loans). Interest rates on new crowns were 5.0% in September, while euro loans were at 3.2%.
The share of non-performing corporate loans, i.e. those that businesses have trouble repaying for more than 90 days, came in below the threshold at 2.49%, which is excellent, even in international comparison. Together with the still high level of corporate deposits, this suggests that "corporates" as a whole are very healthy.
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 in recent years, rising almost every month since then to values in excess of 8%, and since about May last year we have seen a trend slowdown to 4.71% in September. Given the marginal month-on-month decline, total nominal (not real) deposits reached their second highest ever level, after August, with CZK 3 trillion and CZK 770 billion.
Deposit dynamics are weakened by falling deposit rates (they reached 2.87% for deposits with agreed maturity), and the growing popularity of alternative forms of savings appreciation through mutual funds, especially equity funds. Thus, the proverbial conservatism of Czech households is gradually receding, which is good, but still, despite all the shift in risk and return perception, the amount of CZK 1.269 trillion in the current accounts of the population, equivalent to 15% of this year's GDP, is many times higher, albeit very unevenly distributed.
Turning to non-financial corporates, here we register a marginal month-on-month decline in deposits to CZK 1.562 trillion, which means that corporates continue to hold a significantly positive position in deposits over loans drawn, albeit down to CZK 88 billion from CZK 109 billion in August. This is very good news in principle, as the growth in interest in loans, especially investment loans, with the balance falling will be evidence that businesses have started to trust themselves again and are making a stronger contribution to GDP and potential output growth with their investments.
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 (%, Q2, 2025)
Source: EBA