For 2011 as a whole, it declined by 2.8 per cent. At the same time, the banks’ recourse to Eurosystem refinancing increased considerably.
A real risk was emerging that the difficulties of raising funds in the international markets would result in a  BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  contraction of lending, aggravating the cyclical downturn and inevitably triggering feed-back effects on the banks’ balance sheets. Until November Italian banks’ lending to the non-financial private sector continued to expand, although at diminishing rates.