(Finance) – From the update to the first quarter of 2024 Barometer CRIF on the credit to Italian families (Source EURISC – the Credit Information System managed by CRIF) there was an average value decreasing by 3.4% on loan requests. However, if we look at the single month of March we can see the first signs of recovery with a +2.6%; in fact, in the graph below we can see how after months of caution the curve is moving again towards the positive quadrant.
L’average amount requested is instead growing, in fact in the aggregate of personal and finalized loans the value stands at 9,380 Euros (+9.1% compared to the same period of 2023). In the month of March alone, there was a boost in the amount requested of +7.9%, which corresponds to a total value of 9,457 Euros.
“The household credit market is increasingly exposed to competition from new non-banking players (FinTech and BigTech) who diversify their business model through the online channel by expanding towards credit. In this context, investments in technology remain an important factor for developing digital channels and not losing market share. Following a possible fragmentation of the demand for loans across multiple players and payment choices such as Buy Now Pay Later, there is increasingly greater attention to a sustainable economy, also on the part of the European regulator, with increasingly aligned with ESG criteria” – he comments Simon CapecchiExecutive Director of CRIF
In the first quarter of observation the requests for financing finalized recorded a slowdown of 10.0% compared to the corresponding period of 2023. However, a positive trend was recorded for personal loans, which recorded a +5.2%. As for the average amount for both shapes techniques the signs are positive but with different impacts: for finalized loans we have a +15.8% (6,859 Euros), while personal loans remained almost stable with a +0.9% and an average value of 12,202 Euros.
The analysis of distribution of requests by loan amount range confirms that in the first quarter of 2024 Italians’ preferences were concentrated in the class below 5,000 Euros, which explains almost half of the requests with 48.9% of the total. From the analysis of distribution by duration of the loans it can be seen that, even in these first three months of the year, almost one loan in three prefers repayment plans longer than 5 years, with a share equal to 29.9% of the total.
Finally, observing the distribution of credit investigations in relation to the age of the applicant, the CRIF Barometer highlights how in the first quarter of the year the group between 45 and 54 years was the majority, with a share equal to 23.3% of the total, followed by 35- 44 years old with 20.3%.