Bank Lending YoY

Bank Lending YoY is the year-on-year change in the average outstanding balance of loans and discounts at Japanese banks. The Bank of Japan compiles it within Principal Figures of Financial Institutions every month since July 1991. It is compiled balance data from reported figures, not an opinion survey.

It covers loans to residents, or entities active in Japan. It includes yen loans in domestic accounts excluding offshore accounts and impact loans in foreign currencies and euro-yen. Arabic press calls it bank loans or bank lending, and it measures volumes only, not rates or demand views. It excludes loans to non-residents, financial institutions, the central government and offshore accounts, except the foreign-bank reference row.

The figure for month M is the average of daily outstanding balances over all days in month M. Preliminary figures appear at the start of the next month on the Bank of Japan website under embargo until 8:50 am JST. The exact day is announced in advance in the Release Schedule and varies from the 8th to the 13th of the next month.

The same release shows deposits and CDs plus quarterly columns, while broad reference totals arrive with a lag. The Time-Series Data Search carries the series after adjustment for special items. All monthly figures are preliminary and may later be revised, with revised cells marked r in later releases.

Headline growth reflects domestic bank groups, while reference rows stay outside the headline.

• Major banks: 10 named banks that drive headline moves more than others.
• Regional banks I: larger regional banks that usually grow faster than the second group.
• Regional banks II: second-tier regional banks and the slowest growing domestic part.
• Shinkin banks: cooperative banks compiled via Shinkin Central Bank with near flat growth.
• Other surveyed banks: broadest domestic total including Internet-only banks, shown with a lag.
• Foreign banks: yen loans in Japan only on a small base with volatile high growth outside the headline.

In the October 2024 example released November 11, 2024, the headline held at 2.7% from 2.7% in September at 625295.3 billion yen. Major banks slowed to 2.5% from 2.8% and the regional total rose to 3.3% from 3.2%. Regional I reached 3.5% from 3.4% and Regional II reached 2.4% from 2.2%.

Shinkin banks rose to 0.7% from 0.6%, foreign banks jumped to 22.3% and the broad total lagged to August at 3.6%. The release marked r on September figures for the major plus regional total at 3.0% and foreign banks at 24.9%, showing the revision rule.

1. Daily balance: each bank reports loans outstanding for each day under defined scope.
2. Averaging: no X-12 or X-13 procedure is used, and smoothing only divides total balances by days in the month to calm seasonal swings.
3. YoY rate: it equals average minus average 12 months earlier divided by base times 100, with quarterly columns on same basis. If the average is 6252953 in 100 million yen with a 2.7% rise, the year-ago base is about 6088559.
4. Adjusted outstanding: only in the Time-Series Data Search, exchange-rate effects, write-offs, securitization and other items are added to the balance. The ratio then uses the unadjusted base, write-offs are added back since they shrink balance sheets without cutting real credit, and results need latitude.