WARSAW (Reuters) -Polish banks eased their lending criteria in the second quarter of 2025 due to greater competition and interest rate cuts, spurring demand for loans, the central bank said in a quarterly survey of banks published on Monday.
In the second quarter, banks eased their lending criteria for businesses due to increased competition and as non-performing loans in their portfolios fell, the National Bank of Poland’s survey showed.
Demand for credit climbed due to increased capital requirements for financing mergers and acquisitions, inventories and working capital, the report said.
Competitive pressure also led to more relaxed criteria for granting mortgage loans, and demand for them increased.
An additional factor was a cut in interest rates – in May 2025, the cost of loans fell by 50 basis points, the first such reduction since October 2023, and in July, rates fell by a further 25 basis points.
These factors, along with improvement in the economic situation of households, helped boost demand for consumer loans, the central bank said.
“In the third quarter of 2025, banks intend to maintain their current lending criteria for businesses and continue easing the requirements for households. They expect demand to increase for all types of loans, except short-term loans for large enterprises,” the report stated.
The National Bank of Poland survey in early July covered 23 banks that had an 89% total share in the banking sector’s portfolio of receivables from enterprises and households.
(Reporting by Pawel Florkiewicz; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
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