The moderate expansion in bank lending to firms in recent years, despite its recent recovery, is also a result of this process. From 2012, firms’ leverage (the ratio of debt to debt plus equity) has fallen, the share of bonds in total financial debt has increased and the share of bank lending has diminished in equal measure.
John Hurley: Managing financial stability in Ireland Comments by Mr John Hurley, Governor of the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland, at the Central Bank of Luxembourg on the occasion of the publication of its Financial Stability Review, Luxembourg, 28 April 2008.