The rise in daily Covid-19 infections in Cyprus and the heightened uncertainty over the impact on the real economy led the Cypriot banks to tighten the lending criteria for corporate loans in the fourth quarter of 2021, a Bank Lending Survey issued by the Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC) shows.
The CBC said that lending criteria for household loans remained unchanged, while the expectations of the banks participating in the survey suggest that lending criteria will remain unchanged for the first quarter of 2022.
According to the CBC factors that led to the tightened lending criteria for the Cypriot businesses, both large corporates and small and medium sized corporations, were the banks’ perception of risk compared with the prospects of certain sectors of the economy, their general economic status and the reduced risk tolerance.
Source: Cyprus News Agency