In response to a special question in the January SLOOS, a large net fraction of banks reported that the credit quality of their existing C&I loans to small firms was worse than that for their loans to larger firms in the fourth quarter.
However, the growth of loans to non-financial corporations has remained very robust. Bank borrowing by euro area non-financial corporations grew at an annual rate of 14.8% in the year to February 2008. Overall, bank loans to the domestic private sector have grown at around 11% on an annual basis for the past two years.