Central Bank of Chile survey shows tighter consumer credit standards and softer credit demand across most segments

The Central Bank of Chile published its Bank Credit Survey for the first quarter of 2026, showing that banks continued to tighten consumer lending conditions while keeping mortgage standards unchanged. Credit supply conditions were broadly stable for SMEs and large corporates, with a move toward more flexible criteria for real estate and construction companies, and banks perceived credit demand as weaker in most portfolios than in the previous survey. On the supply side, 18% of banks reported stricter consumer credit conditions and 9% more flexible standards, while all banks reported no change in mortgage conditions. The share of banks applying less restrictive criteria increased from 10% to 22% for real estate firms and from 0% to 22% for construction companies. On the demand side, the share of banks seeing weaker household demand rose from 9% to 18% for consumer loans, while for mortgages 40% reported falling demand and 20% rising demand. For large companies, banks reporting weaker demand rose from 15% to 46% and those reporting stronger demand fell from 15% to 0%, attributed to substitution toward other financing sources and lower working-capital needs; for SMEs, weaker-demand responses increased from 20% to 40% while stronger-demand responses remained at 10%. Responses were collected between 17 and 31 March 2026, and the data series are available via the Central Bank’s Statistical Database.