The availability of secured lending to households remained stable in the first quarter of 2018, the Bank of England (BoE)’s quarterly credit conditions survey has shown.
Lenders surveyed reported unchanged secured credit availability from the previous three months, and expected it to remain stable over the next quarter as well.
The secured segment also saw reduced defaults, a trend expected to continue for the next quarter.
Meanwhile, unsecured lending saw a decrease in availability, as lenders tightened their credit assessment criteria.
The BoE said the fall in supply was a driven by “a changing appetite to risk”, with lenders reporting “significantly” tightened credit scoring criteria for unsecured products.
Demand for credit switched from credit cards to other types of unsecured loans, a trend respondents expected to reverse in the next quarter. Lenders expected overall availability of unsecured lending to remain unchanged over the coming three months.
