Abi, loans rise by 3.7% in September. Mortgage rate at 3.6 percent

The rise in bank loans continues, growing for the twenty-first consecutive month, recording an increase of 3.7 percent in September (compared to 3.5% in July). This is highlighted by the monthly bulletin of the ABI for September, which also shows a slight increase in the cost of mortgages, which rises to 3.61% (with an increase of 0.06%), a level lower than the 3.9% calculated by the Bank of Italy in the Banking and Money statistics published in recent days. This month the bulletin also highlights the trend of bad debts: impaired loans in August amounted to 28.2 billion, an increase compared to the update relating to the month of May, when they amounted to around 26 billion.

Funding increasing from March 2025

Total loans to businesses and families grew by 3.7% on an annual basis, accelerating compared to the change recorded in the previous month (+3.5%), continuing the loan growth path that began in March 2025. For families it is the twenty-first consecutive month of increase and for businesses it is the fifteenth consecutive month of loan growth. In fact, in August 2026 loans to businesses increased by 4.2%, while those to families increased by 2.9%.

Mortgage rate at 3.61%

The average rate on total loans (therefore subscribed over the years) was 4.24% (+0.05% compared to the previous month). The average rate on new transactions for the purchase of homes increased to 3.61% (+0.06% compared to the previous month; it was 4.42% in December 2023); the average rate on new business financing operations increased to 3.77% (+0.06% compared to the previous month; it was 5.45% in December 2023)

Credit deterioration rate at 2.8% in 2026

As of August 2026, net impaired loans amounted to €28.2 billion. Net impaired loans represented 1.32% of total loans. According to the ABI-Cerved Outlook for the three-year period 2026-2028, the rate of credit deterioration relating to businesses (calculated as the ratio between the number of impaired credit positions - overdue loans, unlikely to pay or non-performing loans - during the year and the stock of non-impaired positions at the beginning of the year) is expected to increase from 2.6% in 2025 to 2.8% in 2026 and 2.9% in 2027, before decreasing slightly to 2.8% in 2028. Between 2025 and 2028, the sharpest increases in the deterioration rate are expected for medium-sized companies, from 1.8% to 2.1%, and for the construction sector, from 2.9% to 3.2%. In 2028, the highest values ​​would be recorded among micro-enterprises (3.0%), in the South (3.7%) and in construction (3.2%).

Deposits up 1.9 percent

In September 2026, deposits, in various forms, grew by 1.9% on an annual basis (+1.7% the previous month). Medium and long-term funding, through bonds, increased by 6.4% in September 2026 compared to a year earlier (+6.2% in the previous month). Indirect collections, i.e. investments in securities held by banks, showed an increase of 95 billion between August 2025 and August 2026.