16.02.2012
Central Bank research provides snapshot of SME lending
Central Bank of Ireland
At the end of 2010, the largest sectors in terms of Irish financial institutions’ SME exposure were wholesale and retail, financial, hotels and restaurants and agriculture, according to research from the Central Bank of Ireland.
The report entitled 'The Irish SME Lending Market – A Snapshot, December 2010’ provides a detailed overview of the shares and performance of loans across sectors of activity and loan size brackets.
Of the large sectors highlighted, loans to the hotels and restaurants and financial sectors were of much larger value on average.
The report also shows that in total, 70pc of SME loans were performing at end-2010, with 18pc categorised as ‘Watchlist’ or ‘Past Due’ and 12pc ‘Impaired’.
The sector with the largest share of performing loans was agriculture at 81pc.
Of the large-exposure sectors, hotels and restaurants had the lowest share of performing loans at 49pc. Other sectors with low share included construction (65pc), financial (65pc) and manufacturing (66pc).
The work will be presented publicly at the Central Bank conference ‘The Irish SME Lending Market: Descriptions, Analysis, Prescriptions’ on 2 March.
Sorcha Corcoran
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