ECB revises down lending data to reflect offloaded loans

By Francesco Canepa

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank (ECB) revised down the pace of euro zone lending growth for the past year on Monday, after changing the way the data is calculated to better reflect loans that banks have offloaded.

The data now takes into account stocks and repayments of loans that are no longer recorded on banks' balance sheets because they have been transferred, for example as part of an asset-backed security.

For the 12 months to July 2015, the growth rate of loans to the euro area private sector, households and non-financial corporations were revised downwards, on average, by 54 basis points, 77 basis points and 41 basis points, respectively, the ECB said.

"The new method enables a more comprehensive view of developments in loans originated by euro area banks," the ECB said.

"In addition ... this new method improves comparability through more harmonized adjusted growth rates across countries with differing practices regarding the derecognition of transferred loans."

The ECB is due to publish lending data for August on Sept. 25, using the new methodology.

(Reporting by Francesco Canepa; Editing by David Holmes)

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