Financial corporations, loans and deposits, 2009

Total loans by county from Norwegian banks and mortgage companies amounted to NOK 3 108 billion at the end of 2009. This is an increase of NOK 8.4 billion, or only 0.3 per cent, since the end of 2008. Among the counties, Aust-Agder, Finnmark and Vest-Agder had the strongest growth with 7.6, 7.4 and 7.1 respectively. Sogn og Fjordane and Oppland followed with a growth of almost 5 per cent, while the growth in Telemark and Troms was 4 per cent. Four counties had negative growth in loans in 2009. Sør-Trøndelag had by far the largest decrease with -13.8 per cent, followed by Buskerud with -1.3 and Oslo and Akershus with -0.8 and -0.6 respectively. The rest of the counties had an increase in loans between 0.1 and 3.2 per cent.

Loans to financial corporations responsible for the decrease in Sør-Trøndelag

The large decrease in Sør-Trøndelag of -13.8 was caused by a decrease in loans to financial corporations. These loans were reduced by NOK 38 billion, a total of 49.8 per cent, compared to the end of 2008.

Growth in loans to households in all counties

Total loans by county to households from banks and mortgage companies amounted to NOK 1 710 billion at the end of 2009. This is an increase of NOK 105 billion, or 6.5 per cent, compared to the end of 2008. Loans to households increased in all counties. Like last year, Rogaland had the highest growth with 7.9 per cent, closely followed by Aust-Agder with a growth of 7.7 per cent. The rest of the counties had a growth in loans to households between 4.2 and 7.3 per cent.

The mortgage companies are solely responsible for the increase in loans to households. Figures for banks in isolation, show a decrease in all counties, while the figures for the mortgage companies show strong growth, between 41.4 and 173 per cent, in all counties. The reason for this situation is that large portfolios of loans to households are moved from banks to mortgage companies in order to get favourable funding which only the mortgage companies have access to (for instance covered bonds). As a consequence of the large portfolio movements of loans from banks to mortgage companies, these two credit institutions should be considered together in order to give an accurate outlook on the growth in loans.

Decrease in loans to non-financial corporations in 12 of 19 counties

Total loans by county to non-financial corporations from banks and mortgage companies amounted to NOK 916 billion at the end of 2009. This is a decrease of almost NOK 68 billion, or 7 per cent, from the end of 2008. The loan growth was negative in 12 of 19 counties. Akershus had the largest decrease with -21.0 per cent, followed by Buskerud, Oslo and Hordaland with a negative growth of -12.1, -10.8 and -7.8 respectively. In the rest of the counties with a decrease in loans to non-financial corporations, the growth lay between -7.4 and -0.3 per cent. Among the 7 counties which had positive growth, Finnmark, Vest-Agder and Aust-Agder were on top with a growth of 7.6, 4.3 and 4.3 per cent respectively. The rest of the counties had a modest growth in loans to non-financial corporations.