The European Central Bank has published a glossary to help banks complete the bank lending survey, setting out the main definitions and interpretive conventions used in the questionnaire. The document clarifies how respondents should assess lending to enterprises and households, credit supply conditions, loan demand and related risk, funding and collateral concepts, with the aim of ensuring consistent reporting across participating banks. The glossary draws key distinctions that matter for survey responses. It separates credit standards, defined as a bank’s internal approval criteria, from credit terms and conditions, defined as the contractual terms on approved loans. It defines loan demand as gross nominal financing need, including rollovers but excluding normal seasonal fluctuations, and explains how net percentages and diffusion indices should be calculated, including weighting more intense responses more heavily. It also specifies the survey’s loan perimeter as lending by domestic branches to euro area residents, excluding interbank loans but including financial leases and factoring when provided by a monetary financial institution. Among other operational definitions, large enterprises are those with annual net turnover above EUR 50 million, and short-term loans are those with an original maturity of one year or less.
European Central Bank2026-07-21
European Central Bank publishes bank lending survey glossary clarifying core definitions for respondent banks
The European Central Bank has issued a glossary for banks completing the bank lending survey. It clarifies core survey concepts including credit standards, loan demand, borrower categories and index calculations. The document also defines the scope of loans covered, including exclusions and cases such as financial leases and factoring by monetary financial institutions.