Eurozone debt crisis weighed on bank lending: ECB

The eurozone debt crisis weighed on bank lending in the second quarter of the year, the European Central Bank said on Wednesday, although the number of mortgages surged in June.
In its regular lending survey of 120 eurozone banks, the ECB said a net 11 percent reported tighter credit standards for businesses, up sharply from a net 3.0 percent in the first quarter of 2010.
The commercial bank's own forecast for the second quarter was for a slight improvement to 2.0 percent.
Household loans were slightly less affected, with a net 10 percent of banks saying they had tightened conditions, the same level as in the first quarter of the year.
There however, the forecast had also been for a decline to 2.0 percent.
A net result means that in the first case, 11 percent more banks said they had tightened standards than those that left conditions unchanged or loosened them.
Looking ahead to the third quarter, a net five percent of the banks expected business credit conditions to be more restrictive, but three and six percent saw easier conditions for mortgage and consumer credit, respectively.
Commercial banks blamed a deterioration of their balance sheets and access to wholesale funding as factors behind the tighter second-quarter lending standards, the ECB said.
The latter was "possibly" a reflection of "renewed financial market tensions following concerns about sovereign risk" in countries like Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain, it added.
In the coming three months, a net 10-20 percent of the banks expected access to wholesale funding on money or bond markets to worsen further, the ECB added.
Commercial lenders nonetheless felt credit risks were better and business conditions had improved.