The Central Bank of Chile published the first-quarter 2026 results of its bank credit survey, showing that banks reported more restrictive consumer lending conditions, unchanged housing loan standards, and more flexible lending for real estate and construction firms. Across most portfolios, banks perceived credit demand to have weakened compared with the previous survey. On credit supply, 18% of banks reported tighter consumer credit conditions (unchanged from the prior quarter) while 9% reported more flexible standards, and all banks reported no changes in housing credit conditions. Standards for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large corporates were stable, while the share of banks applying less restrictive criteria rose from 10% to 22% for real estate firms and from 0% to 22% for construction firms. On demand, the share of banks seeing weaker consumer credit demand increased from 9% to 18% (with 9% still seeing stronger demand), and for housing loans 40% reported falling demand while 20% reported an increase; for large corporates, the share citing weaker demand rose from 15% to 46% and those citing stronger demand fell from 15% to 0%, attributed to substitution toward other funding sources and lower working capital needs. For SMEs, banks reporting weaker demand increased from 20% to 40% while those reporting strengthening remained at 10%; in real estate, banks reporting higher demand fell from 40% to 22% and those reporting weaker dynamics rose from 0% to 22%, while demand for construction firms was described as broadly stable with a higher share reporting strengthening. The survey reflects responses collected from banks between 17 and 31 March 2026, and the Central Bank noted that the data are available through its Statistical Database.

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