Banking

Banks are expecting a decrease in demand for business loans, especially from small and medium-sized enterprises, in the second quarter of the year, as a result of the rise in interest rates and the increase in the cost of money, which discourages borrowing.

Regulators seized troubled First Republic Bank and sold all of its deposits and most of its assets to JPMorgan Chase Bank in a bid to head off further banking turmoil in the U.S.

Potential homebuyers in Türkiye currently are taking a wait-and-see approach, anticipating that banks will eventually turn on the credit taps after the May 14 elections.

As demand has weakened, some property owners are reducing their asking price in an attempt to find a buyer.

Prices of houses offered on the market for sale have declined by 5 percent, daily Milliyet reported.

The Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) has taken measures to restrict lending and control the growth of inflation. The central bank's decision is to more than double the minimum required reserves of banks.

This is happening two days after the BNB reported as a risk the rapid growth of lending from commercial treasuries.

The European Central Bank's chief economist yesterday said it was "not the right time" to end interest rate hikes, despite easing inflation in the eurozone.    

The ECB has raised rates by 3.5 percentage points since July last year in an unprecedented campaign of monetary tightening to bring soaring consumer prices under control.     

Americans are finally reaping some benefit from keeping their money in the bank.

Banks are paying up for savers' deposits in a much bigger way than they have in more than a decade, based on recent earnings reports from the nation's biggest banks.

The process of raising interest rates in Bulgaria will accelerate in the coming months, the BNB predicts in the traditional publication "Banks in Bulgaria". The Central Bank warns that there are prerequisites for the accumulation of risk in the balance sheet of the banking system.

Cyprus' Finance Minister, Makis Keravnos, has written letters to the director general of the Cyprus Banks Association and the director general of the Association of Credit Acquisition Companies and Credit Facility Managers, requesting measures to control rising lending rates for serviceable loans up to 350,000 euros.

Swiss Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter said Switzerland's economy would probably have collapsed had Credit Suisse gone bankrupt, in an interview published yesterday.

Keller-Sutter told Le Temps newspaper that the government had acted in the country's best interests in swiftly arranging the takeover of Switzerland's second-biggest bank by its larger domestic rival UBS.

Banks are stopping any further rises in mortgage rates, freezing interest rates at a date reportedly set for March 31.

This means that any increases made after last Friday or due to be made from now on in the interest rates that form the basis of reference for housing loans will not be applied.