Frontier Statistics: Total Domestic Credit

A View of Domestic Lending Through the Central Credit Register (CCR) – September 2024

The Total Domestic Credit Frontier Statistics present data on the total amount of personal and business loans in Ireland which are included in the Central Credit Register (CCR), and a breakdown of loans by borrower, lender and loan type.

Total Credit figures are compiled from the CCR, a database containing records of loans and loan applications of over €500 borrowed by Irish residents or governed by Irish law. These statistics provide additional context to the Irish credit landscape alongside the Central Bank of Ireland Official Credit and Banking Statistics. Notable differences between these statistics may be explained in the explanatory notes.

Key Observations

  • Banks are the largest providers of domestic loans to individuals. The majority of these loans relate to mortgage lending on the borrower’s Principal-Dwelling Home (PDH).
  • Non-banks play an important role in the provision of business loans to individuals, and are the main providers of some specific loan types (see below).
  • Credit unions are the largest providers of consumer installment loans to individuals.

Overview - Total Credit

Key Indicator - Total Domestic Credit

The outstanding credit advanced to Irish households and businesses in September 2024 was €216.4bn.

Total credit generally remains steady from month to month

Total credit outstanding (€ bn)

Point plot of total outstanding credit per month for January 2023 to September 2024. Full summary below in notes.
Notes: Total outstanding credit per month remains steady, and the total outstanding credit in September 2024 is €216.4bn.

Overview - Borrowers and Lenders

Banks are the largest lenders, and individual personal loans make up the largest loans.

Total credit by lender and borrower type (September 2024)

Sankey diagram demonstrating the value of loans by lender and borrower. Full summary below in notes.
Notes: The Sankey diagram shows that in September 2024, Banks are the largest lenders, lending €137.4bn of the €216.4bn of total credit. Individual personal credit is the largest borrower type, borrowing €134.6bn.

The largest credit transactions take place between banks and individuals in loans for their personal use.

Total credit transactions by lender and borrower type (September 2024)

Chord diagram showing the flow of credit from lenders to borrowers. Full summary below in notes.
Notes: The chord diagram shows that the flow of lending from Banks to Individual personal credit holders is the largest single transaction between lenders and borrowers in the domestic economy in September 2024.
Key Indicator - Average Individual Debt

Average individual debt per capita in Ireland is €25,759 (September 2024)

Key Indicator - Home Mortgage Loans

The outstanding amount of Principal-dwelling home mortgage loans to individuals is €105 billion (September 2024)

The majority of loans (62%) are individual personal loans which includes Principal-Dwelling Home (PDH) mortgages, loans for personal consumption as well as other loan types to individuals.

Outstanding debt by borrower type (September 2024)

Gauge plot of the percentage of debt by borrower type - Companies, individual personal credit and individual business credit. Full summary below in notes.
Notes: The chart shows that Individual personal credit comprises 62% of the total credit in September 2024 (€134.6bn), while Companies hold 32% (€69.7bn) and 6% (€12.1bn) is attributed to Individual business credit.

Principal Dwelling Home (PDH) mortgages comprise the largest type of individual loan by value.

Loan type

Percentage of total

Mortgage – Principal Dwelling Home (PDH)

78.33%

Personal Installment Loan

8.81%

Mortgage – Buy to Let (BTL)

6.8%

Hire Purchase (excl. personal contract plans)

2.40%

Credit Card

1.47%

Personal Contract Plans

1.48%

Other

0.71%


Credit by Lender Type

Total Credit by Lender Type (September 2024)

Gauge plot of the percentage of credit by lender - Bank, Non-Bank, Government and Credit Union. Full summary below in notes.
Notes: The chart shows that as at September 2024, Banks lend 63% of the total credit (€137.4bn), Non-Banks hold 28% (€59.6bn), Government holds 5% (€11.7bn) and 4% (€7.7bn) is attributed to Credit Unions.

Banks are providing most of the credit in the economy and these proportions have been static in recent months.

Total Credit by Lender Type

Bar plot showing the proportion of credit by lender type from January 2023 - September 2024. Full summary below in notes.
Notes: The time series tracks the proportion of credit by lender types - Bank, Non-Bank, Government and Credit Union. The proportions have remained steady, with Banks dominating total credit, followed by Non-Banks, Government and Credit Unions.

Credit by Borrower Type

Non-banks play a far greater role in providing credit to companies than to individuals.

Outstanding debt by lender and borrower type (September 2024)

Horizontal bar plot of the percentage of debt by lender and borrower type. Full summary below in notes.
Notes: Within this chart for September 2024, for each borrower (Companies, Individual personal credit and individual business credit), there is a bar breaking down the proportion of credit into lenders - Bank, Non-Bank, Government and Credit Union. While Banks dominate lending in Individual personal credit (72.5 %), Non-Banks provide 62% of credit in Individual business credit, and 34.1% to Companies - larger than the 21% for Individual personal credit.

Individual Personal Credit

Banks dominate the market in individual personal loans.

Total individual personal lending by lender type (September 2024)

Donut plot of the percentage of credit per lender type for individual personal credit. Full summary below in notes.
Notes: The donut plot is broken down into the proportion of credit in September 2024 given by lenders - Bank, Non-Bank, Government and Credit Union. Banks provide 72.5% of credit, at €97.6bn, followed by non-banks (21%, €28.3bn), credit unions (5.6%, €7.5bn) and Government (0.9%, €1.2bn).

Company Credit

Non-banks play a relatively greater role in lending to companies.

Total lending to companies by lender type (September 2024)

Notes: The donut chart shows that in September 2024, Banks provide 52.1% of credit, at €36.3bn, followed by Non-Banks (34.1%, €23.8bn), and Government (13.8%, €9.6bn).
Notes: The donut chart shows that in September 2024, Banks provide 52.1% of credit, at €36.3bn, followed by Non-Banks (34.1%, €23.8bn), and Government (13.8%, €9.6bn).

Individual Business Credit

Non-banks are the dominant providers of individual business loans.

Total individual business lending by lender type (September 2024)

Donut plot of the percentage of credit per lender type for individual business credit.  Full summary below in notes.
Notes: The donut plot for September 2024 shows that Non-Banks provide 62% of credit, at €7.5bn, followed by banks (28.7%, €3.5bn), Government (8%, €1bn), and credit unions (1.3%, €0.1bn).

Principal-Dwelling Home (PDH) mortgage loans

Banks are the dominant holders of Principal-Dwelling Home (PDH) mortgage loans.

Total Principal-Dwelling Home (PDH) mortgage loans by lender type (September 2024)

Gauge plot of the percentage of Principal-Dwelling Home (PDH) mortgage loans by lender - Bank, Non-Bank, Government and Credit Union. Full summary below in notes.
Notes: The chart shows that for September 2024 Banks lend 82% of the total mortgage credit (€86.4bn), Non-Banks hold 16.3% (€17.22bn), Governments hold 1% (€1.09bn) and 0.7% (€0.73bn) is attributed to Credit Unions.

Personal Installment Loans

However, Credit Unions are the dominant providers of personal installment loans.

Total personal installment loans by lender type (September 2024)

Alt text – Gauge plot of the percentage of personal loans by lender - Bank, Non-Bank, Government and Credit Union. Full summary below in notes.
Notes: The chart shows that for September 2024, Credit Unions dominate with 57.2% of personal loans (€6.79bn), followed by Banks (31.7%, €3.76bn), Non-Banks (10.7%, €1.27bn) and Government (0.4%, €0.04bn).

Publication note: This series is awaiting refreshed data and will be updated in due course.

Data

Background

The Total CCR Credit Frontier Statistics publication presents data on the total amount of personal and business loans in Ireland, and a breakdown of loans by borrower, lender and loan type. This data is published for the first time as a Frontier Statistics release, indicating that the methods and data within are subject to revision. This data will be updated on a quarterly basis. You can learn more about the Frontier Statistics project on the What Are Frontier Statistics webpage.

Total CCR Credit figures are compiled from the Central Credit Register (CCR), a database containing records of loans and loan applications of over €500 borrowed by Irish residents or governed by Irish law.  The CCR is established by the Central Bank of Ireland under the Credit Reporting Act 2013 as amended. As such, lenders are required to submit information on loans to the CCR.

This publication provides additional context to the Irish credit landscape alongside the Central Bank of Ireland Official Credit and Banking Statistics. Notable differences between these publications may be explained in the Coverage and Scope section.

Coverage and Scope

Data on Total CCR Credit is subject to the same coverage and scope as the CCR, from which the data is compiled. Information on the types of lenders and loans included in the CCR can be found on the Central Credit Register website. The lenders included in this publication, and defined in the CCR, are regulated financial service providers (i.e. banks), government (e.g. NAMA), credit unions and county councils/local authorities. Irish-resident lenders and lenders in the EEA regulated by other agencies are included in the CCR. This publication also includes non-banks - non-regulated Irish-resident companies which are lenders or holders of mortgage loans as well as other debt types. This includes lenders providing specific loans, for example for property/asset finance and leasing. More information on the composition of non-banks in the CCR is detailed in this Behind the Data report and the full population list is available on the Central Credit Register List of Information Providers.

There are some loan types which are absent from the CCR, including tradeable assets such as loan notes and debt securities, and other loan types including trade credit, intra-group credit and utilities debt. Other loans excluded are loans owed between credit institutions, however loans between other financial corporations such as investment funds are included.

The CCR captures data on loans to individuals as well as to companies. Individuals may also borrow for business purposes without being considered a company. An example of this would be sole traders. This publication addresses this by assigning loans to three distinct borrower types:

1/ Company credit

2/ Individual personal credit – borrowing by individuals where the loan type indicates that the borrowing is likely for personal usage

3/ Individual business credit – borrowing by individuals where the loan type indicates that the borrowing is likely for business usage

This publication relates to domestic credit only, with any loans included in the CCR which are identified as being to non-Irish residents excluded here.

The Statistics Division of the Central Bank of Ireland publishes Credit and Banking Official Statistics. There are key differences in the coverage of this data compared to the Total Credit data published under Frontier Statistics. One such difference is that the Credit and Banking data covers resident credit institutions such as banks and credit unions. As per the above, this Total Credit publication also includes other lender types – Government including Local Authorities and Non-Banks. Total Credit data also provides a different breakdown of the borrowers into Individuals borrowing in a personal capacity, individuals borrowing for business purposes, and companies, while the Credit and Banking Statistics is divided into Irish-resident households and non-financial corporations.

Data Checks and Revisions

As part of the Frontier Statistics series, the Total CCR Credit publication will undergo continuous revisions each quarter, and the data and methodology are subject to change. CCR data are subject to change, and therefore analysis will be repeated each quarter to ensure the most timely data is included.

Data quality checks have been carried out by comparing the Total Credit data with other Central Bank of Ireland Official Statistics data sets. This includes cross-checking the values obtained with the figures for Total Loans, Mortgage Loans and Credit Card Balances. Comparisons were also made with the Mortgage Arrears data set, namely PDH Loans and BTL Loans.

Definitions

Credit: Credit includes loans, deferred payments and other financial accommodations, including (but not limited to) personal loans, mortgages and commercial loans. The CCR does not include utility loans and credit provided by one credit institution to another, amongst others. See more information on the Central Credit Register website.

Central Credit Register (CCR): A database of loans of €500 or more borrowed by a person living in the Irish State at the time of applying for the loan, or borrowed via a loan agreement/application which is governed by Irish law. The CCR was set up in 2013 by the Central Bank of Ireland under the Credit Reporting Act 2013 (as amended). Lenders submit information on existing loans and loan applications to the CCR.

Borrower: Borrowers include individuals, sole traders and companies. The CCR collects information on borrowers who have made a credit application, has made a credit agreement or is a guarantor. They are a person (i.e. an individual or a sole-trader) or a legal entity.

Lender: The CCR collects data from Credit Information Providers (Lenders). This includes Banks, Non-Banks, Local Authorities, Government and Credit Unions.

Credit agreement covered by Irish law: The CCR contains loans whose credit agreements are covered by Irish law. Examples of this are large corporates and individuals moving in and out of the state and across the border.

Bank: Bank in this dataset refers to licensed credit institutions as published on the Central Credit Register website. This means that lending by traditional retail banks, as well as lending by international banks with limited interaction with the general public is considered within bank lending here, It also includes, where identifiable, non-bank lending entities which are owned by banks, and are therefore considered to be part of a banking group.

Non-bank: Lenders or holders of mortgage loans which are not banks, credit unions, or government-sponsored entities. Many non-bank lenders provide specific loans or cater for specific borrowers, such as property finance and asset finance and leasing. Others provide a combination of the aforementioned loan types.

Credit Union: A Credit Union is a financial co-operative formed for the promotion of thrift among its members by the accumulation of their savings; the creation of sources of credit for the mutual benefit of its members at a fair and reasonable rate of interest; and the use and control of members' savings for their mutual benefit.

Government: The Government sector refers to lending undertaken by any entity identified as being state controlled. This includes loans of local authorities, as well as other state bodies and agencies.

Individual Personal Loans: This relates to borrowing undertaken by individuals for their personal use, as opposed to business usage. Buy-to-let mortgage lending is also included within the individual personal loan category.

Company Loans: This relates to loans given to companies as opposed to individuals or sole traders. It includes loans to financial borrowers, such as investment funds, as well as non-financial corporates.

Individual Business Loans: This relates to loans given to individuals for business purposes, to the extent that this can be ascertained by the information provided for the purpose of the loan. This definition has been deemed the most appropriate for this publication, however other approaches to approximate sole trader lending are possible, and may be explored further in the future.

PDH Loans: Principal-Dwelling Home loans.

BTL Loans: Buy-To-Let loans.


Total Domestic Credit Frontier Statistics Tables | xlsx 29 KB

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