Overview
These monthly statistics on the amount of, and interest rates on, borrowing and deposits by households and businesses are used by the Bank’s policy committees to understand economic trends and developments in the UK banking system.
Key points:
- Net borrowing of mortgage debt by individuals increased sharply by £9.7 billion to £13.0 billion in March, following a decrease in net borrowing of £1.0 billion to £3.3 billion in February.
- Net mortgage approvals for house purchases decreased for the third consecutive month, with a fall of 800 to 64,300 in March. By contrast, approvals for remortgaging increased by 1,000 to 33,400 in March.
- Net borrowing of consumer credit by individuals was £0.9 billion in March, down from £1.3 billion in the previous month. Within this, net borrowing through credit cards decreased to £0.2 billion in March, the lowest since April 2024 (£0.2 billion). Net borrowing through other forms of consumer credit remained unchanged at £0.6 billion in March.
- Households’ deposits with banks and building societies increased by £7.4 billion in March, following net deposits of £5.0 billion in March.
- Private non-financial corporations (PNFCs) repaid, on net, £1.5 billion of finance in March, following net repayments of £1.0 billion in February.
- The net flow of sterling money (known as M4ex) was £11.6 billion in March, compared to £1.7 billion in February. Within this, households and PNFCs increased their holdings of money, by £7.4 billion and £5.4 billion respectively, while non-intermediate other financial corporations (NIOFCs) decreased their holdings of money by £1.1 billion.
- The flow of sterling net lending to private sector companies and households (M4Lex) was £17.3 billion in March, compared to £5.4 billion in February. Households and NIOFCs accounted for £13.0 billion and £3.4 billion, respectively, within this flow.
References in the text point to the summary tables below. For further statistics, please see our visual summaries, Effective Rates (ER) statistical release, Capital Issuance statistical release, and Bankstats tables.
Lending to and deposits from individuals
Mortgage lending (M&C Tables D and E):
Net borrowing of mortgage debt by individuals increased sharply by £9.7 billion to £13.0 billion in March, following a decrease in net borrowing of £1.0 billion to £3.3 billion in February. The annual growth rate for net mortgage lending rose from 1.9% to 2.7% in March, the highest since March 2023 (2.7%). Gross lending increased significantly to £39.9 billion in March, from £24.9 billion in February, and was the highest since June 2021 (£42.4 billion). Gross repayments also increased in March, to £23.7 billion from £19.8 billion, the highest level of repayments since October 2022 (£25.9 billion).
Net mortgage approvals (that is, approvals net of cancellations) for house purchases, which is an indicator of future borrowing, decreased for the third consecutive month, with a fall of 800 to 64,300 in March. By contrast, approvals for remortgaging (which only capture remortgaging with a different lender) increased by 1,000 to 33,400 in March, following a decrease of 700 in February (Chart 1).
Chart 1: Mortgage approvals
Seasonally adjusted
The ‘effective’ interest rate – the actual interest paid – on newly drawn mortgages decreased by 3 basis points, to 4.50% in March. Similarly, the rate on the outstanding stock of mortgages was 3.84% in March, compared with 3.87% in February.
Consumer credit (M&C Tables B and C):
In March, net borrowing of consumer credit by individuals decreased to £0.9 billion, from £1.3 billion in the previous month (Chart 2). Within this, net borrowing through credit cards decreased to £0.2 billion in March, the lowest since April 2024 (£0.2 billion). Net borrowing through other forms of consumer credit (such as car dealership finance and personal loans) remained unchanged at £0.6 billion in March.
The annual growth rate for all consumer credit decreased to 6.1% in March from 6.4% in February. Over the same period, the annual growth rate for credit card borrowing dropped to 8.4% from 8.9%, and the annual growth rate for other forms of consumer credit slightly decreased to 5.2% from 5.3%.
Chart 2: Consumer credit
Seasonally adjusted
The effective interest rate on interest-charging overdrafts decreased by 72 basis points to 22.28% in March. The effective rate on interest-charging credit cards decreased by 28 basis points in March, to 21.54%. The effective rate on new personal loans to individuals also dropped by 51 basis points, to 8.40% in March.
Households’ deposits (M&C Table J):
Households’ deposits with banks and building societies increased by £7.4 billion in March, following net deposits of £5.0 billion in March. This was driven by households depositing an additional £4.2 billion into ISAs, £3.0 billion into non-interest bearing sight accounts and £1.6 billion into interest-bearing sight accounts. These were partly offset by the withdrawal of £1.3 billion from interest-bearing time accounts (Chart 3).
Chart 3: Breakdown of households’ deposits (Household M4)
Seasonally adjusted net flow
The effective interest rate paid on individuals’ new time deposits with banks and building societies rose by 2 basis points, to 3.95% in March. The effective rates on the outstanding stock of time and sight deposits were 3.62% and 2.01% respectively in March, down from 3.66% and 2.09% in February.
Lending to and deposits from businesses
Businesses’ borrowing from banks (M&C Tables G-I):
In March, UK non-financial businesses (PNFCs and public corporations) borrowed, on net, £1.8 billion of loans from banks and building societies (including overdrafts), following £0.5 billion of net repayments in February. Within this measure, large non-financial businesses borrowed, on net, £1.7 billion, compared to £0.2 billion of net repayments in February. Small and medium-sized non-financial businesses (SMEs) borrowed, on net, £0.1 billion, following net repayments of £0.3 billion in February.
The annual growth rate of borrowing by large businesses increased to 5.3% in March from 4.8% in February. The annual growth rate of borrowing by SMEs increased for the 12th consecutive month, rising from -1.5% to -1.2% (Chart 4).
Chart 4: Annual growth of lending to SMEs and large businesses
Seasonally adjusted
The effective interest rate on new loans from banks to UK PNFCs was 6.21% in March, slightly increased from 6.20% in February. The effective interest rate on new loans to SMEs decreased, by 15 basis points, to 6.75% in March.
Net Finance Raised (M&C Table F):
PNFCs repaid, on net, £1.5 billion of finance in March, following net repayments of £1.0 billion in February. This was driven by £3.2 billion of net equity buybacks and £1.6 billion of net bond redemptions. These were partially offset by £3.9 billion of net borrowing through loans from banks and building societies (Chart 5).
Chart 5: Net finance raised by PNFCs
Seasonally adjusted net flow
Businesses’ deposits:
In March, UK non-financial businesses deposited £15.7 billion with banks and building societies in all currencies, the highest net deposits since June 2021 (£18.8 billion). By contrast, they withdrew £13.6 billion in February. The effective rate on new time deposits from PNFCs rose by 5 basis points to 3.95% in March, while the effective rate on stock sight deposits decreased, to 2.37%, from 2.46% in the previous month.
Aggregate money (M4ex) and lending (M4Lex) (M&C Tables J and K)
The net flow of sterling money (known as M4ex) was £11.6 billion in March, compared to £1.7 billion in February. Within this, households and PNFCs increased their holdings of money by £7.4 billion and £5.4 billion, respectively. By contrast, NIOFCs decreased their holdings of money by £1.1 billion, compared to an increase of £1.2 billion in February.
The flow of sterling net lending to private sector companies and households (M4Lex) was £17.3 billion in March, compared to £5.4 billion in February. March’s lending was mostly driven by £13.0 billion of net lending to households, following £4.3 billion of net lending in February. During this month, there were also flows of £3.4 billion and £0.8 billion of net lending to NIOFCs and PNFCs, respectively.
Queries
If you have any comments or queries about this release, please email DSD_MS@bankofengland.co.uk.
Next release date: 2 June 2025
