Statistics 28 February 2022 10:00 AM

Student loan drawdowns at significantly higher level than before

As the student loan tranche for the spring semester was available for drawdown in January 2022, students took out an exceptionally large amount of student loans, almost EUR 350 million. This was almost 7% more than in January a year earlier and more than ever before in monthly terms in the history of the student loan statistics. Following the student financial aid reform, which entered into force in 2017, students began to take out larger government-guaranteed student loans than before, which has notably boosted the level of drawdowns. In recent years, student loan drawdowns have also been further fuelled by both an increase in the number of borrowers and the low level of interest rates. In January 2022, the average interest rate on new student loan drawdowns was 0.09%.

As a result of the large amounts drawn down, the stock of student loans hit an exceptionally high level in January 2022, standing at EUR 5.5 bn. The student loan stock is still growing briskly, although the pace of growth has moderated in recent years. In January 2022, the annual growth rate of the student loan stock was 12.1%, compared to the peak of 23.3% in February 2018, following the student financial aid reform of 2017. Growth in the loan stock is, on the other hand, dampened by the student loan compensation, i.e. an instalment repaid by the Finnish Social Insurance Institution Kela. In euro terms, the student loan stock has doubled its size since the 2017 reform.

Loans

Finnish households drew down EUR 1.4 bn of new housing loans in January 2022, up by about EUR 30 million on the same month last year. Of the new housing loans, buy-to-let mortgages accounted for EUR 148 million. At the end of January 2022, the stock of housing loans stood at EUR 107.1 bn, and the annual growth rate of the stock was 4.0%. Buy-to-let mortgages accounted for EUR 8.7 bn of the housing loan stock. Out of all loans of Finnish households at end-January, consumer credit accounted for EUR 16.7 bn and other loans for EUR 18.2 bn.

Drawdowns of new loans^[1] by Finnish non-financial corporations in January 2022 totalled EUR 1.6 bn, of which loans to housing corporations accounted for EUR 367 million. The average interest rate on new corporate loan drawdowns rose from December, to 1.9%. At the end of January, the stock of loans to Finnish non-financial corporations stood at EUR 99.0 bn, of which loans to housing corporations accounted for EUR 39.8 bn.

Deposits

The stock of Finnish households’ deposits at end-January 2022 stood at EUR 109.4 bn, and the average interest rate on the deposits was 0.03%. Overnight deposits accounted for EUR 100.5 bn and deposits with agreed maturity for EUR 2.2 bn of the deposit stock. In January, Finnish households concluded EUR 52 million of new agreements on deposits with agreed maturity, at an average interest rate of 0.27%.

Loans and deposits to Finland, preliminary data
	November, EUR million	December, EUR million	January, EUR million	January, 12-month change¹, %	Average interest rate, %
Loans to households, stock	141,390	141,719	142,023	4,0	1,30
- of which housing loans	106,688	106,997	107,051	4,0	0,79
- of which buy-to-let mortgages	8,574	8,641	8,686		0,91
Loans to non-financial corporations², stock	97,044	99,337	98,959	2,9	1,21
Deposits by households, stock	109,093	109,006	109,409	5,0	0,03
Households' new drawdowns of housing loans	1,931	1,807	1,419		0,80
- of which buy-to-let mortgages	180	179	148		0,92

* Includes loans and deposits in all currencies to residents in Finland. The statistical releases of the Bank of Finland up to January 2021, as well as those of the ECB, present loans and deposits in euro to euro area residents and also include non-profit institutions serving households. For these reasons, the figures in this table differ from those in the aforementioned releases.
1 Rate of change has been calculated from monthly differences in levels adjusted for classification and other revaluation changes.
2 Non-financial corporations also include housing corporations.