The outstanding volume of foreign currency loans (FX lending) to private households fell by € 460 million or -4.5% adjusted for exchange rate effects in the second quarter of 2021. Outstanding volume has therefore fallen by € 2.15 bn or -17.6% in the last year. As of 30 June 2021 the outstanding amount of foreign currency loans stood at € 9.95 bn, and therefore was below € 10 bn for the first time since 1999. Since the imposing of the ban on granting of new foreign currency loans in Autumn 2008, the outstanding volume has fallen by € 38.06 billion or -80.7%. The share of foreign currency loans at the end of the 2nd quarter 2021 as a proportion of all outstanding household loans fell to a mere 5.9% during Q2 2019, a decrease of 1.8 percentage points year-on-year. At the height of the foreign currency loan boom this share stood at 31.8%. These were the findings from the FMA’s Foreign Currency Loan Survey for the second quarter of 2021.
The long-term trend continues
“Foreign currency loans are a highly speculative financial product, exposed to a multitude of cumulatively occurring risks, The financial market turbulences that have been observed in recent years have demonstrated this dramatically and in a costly manner for many,” remarked the FMA’s Executive Directors, Helmut Ettl and Eduard Müller: “Foreign currency loans and loans with repayment vehicles are not suitable for the long-term financing requirements of private households. The ban of granting of new loans, which the FMA already imposed back in 2008, and the packages of measures for limiting the risks associated with such loans that are still outstanding have managed to sustainably blunt this financial threat for many Austrian households.”
96.6% of the outstanding foreign currency loans during the 2nd quarter were denominated in Swiss francs (the remainder is almost entirely denominated in Japanese yen), with the exchange rate during this period fluctuating between CHF 1.0883 and 1.1099 to the Euro. Since the height of the boom in foreign currency loans in 2008, the Swiss franc has appreciated by 50.5%.
Journalists may address further enquiries to:
Klaus Grubelnik (FMA Media Spokesperson)
+43/(0)1/24959-6006
+43/(0)676 88 249 516