Over time, banks have shifted not only into potentially riskier assets but also into longer-term assets. Housing loans account for around 16% of German banks’ total assets. [15] For smaller banks such as savings banks and cooperatives, housing loans play an even more important role, amounting to about one third of total assets.
Banks have, over the past decade, significantly increased the share of long-term loans: the share of mortgages with maturities of more than 10 years increased from about 30% to 48% between 2010 and 2021. Loans to non-financial firms typically have longer maturities than mortgage loans, but here, too, the share of long-term loans increased from about 67% in 2010 to 74% in 2021.