Mortgage rates rising again, bank funding and deposits continuing to rise but less quickly, while the pace of lending to businesses and families increases. Those that emerge from the latest Abi report which photographs the credit trend in the last month of the past year are signs of dynamism but also indications of a newfound caution.
As regards mortgages, in December the average rate on new operations for the purchase of homes increased to 3.37% compared to 3.30% in the previous month and the average rate for new business financing operations rose to 3.64% against 3.52% in November: a direct effect of the trend in reference rates on the market (IRS) which increased from 2.69% in September to 2.90% in November.
An expected increase and a clear indication that the bearish dynamic is now over, warns the ABI. An indication that savers seem to have understood, given that 80% of the mortgages stipulated in December were at a fixed rate: “Families – explains the deputy general manager Gianfranco Torriero – immunize themselves against the risks of a rise in rates”.
The interest on old mortgages remains unchanged, on average at 3.97%. However, the monthly report of Italian banks highlights an accelerated propensity for investment by families and businesses with the amount of loans growing by 2.3% on an annual basis, an acceleration compared to November (+2.1%), when loans to families had grown by 2.3% and those to businesses by 1.8%.
For families it is the twelfth consecutive month in which an increase has been recorded and for businesses it is the sixth consecutive month in which loans have grown.
Likewise, collections and deposits continued to rise in December but with a slower pace than in previous months.
Indirect funding between November 2024 and November 2025 grew by 106.5 billion and overall direct funding (deposits from resident customers and bonds) in December 2025 reached 2,137.2 billion, with an increase of 2% on the previous year but decelerating compared to +2.6% in November.
Deposits in December also grew by 2.1% on an annual basis compared to 2.7% in the previous month, as did medium and long-term funding, through bonds which increased by 1.1% in December 2025 compared to a year earlier (+1.9% in the previous month).