The South African Bank Lending Practices Survey is based on the third quarter of 2021, from July to September. It is a combination of a survey and interviews with certain senior bank lending executives from the contributing banks and forms the basis of this working paper.
As at the end of September 2021, the total domestic assets held by the South African banking industry was approximately R5 643 billion. This was about R121 billion higher than the total balance sheet of the banks in our previous Survey, using March 2021 data, at approximately R5 521 billion.
In the previous Survey, banks indicated a general preference towards household lending over lending to enterprises, indicating a significant increase in mortgages to households during the next period. Household mortgage finance at R38 billion was the largest contributor to the R44 billion in loans extended to households, with enterprises receiving R29 billion in total.
Since our March 2021 Survey, we experienced rioting and looting in KwaZulu Natal and other provinces during July. The subsequent month-on-month data does not show a noticeable change in bank lending as a result thereof.