Euro area banks tightened credit standards for firms by a net 9 percent in the third quarter, more than the 5 percent they had expected, while demand for housing loans fell by a net 27 percent, the European Central Bank’s October bank lending survey showed. The survey is covered in full in today’s ECB story; it is the clearest single read on European transmission tightening into the winter.
Italy sells up to 3.5 billion euros of short term and inflation linked BTPs at auction on October 27, with a further BOT sale on October 28, in a funding week that follows the close of the BTP Valore retail placement. The MNI supply calendar also lists a potential Dutch DSL auction on October 27. Routine auctions are not calendar events on this site unless they are exceptionally large or stressed, and these are neither, but the concentration of Italian supply in the same week as the Federal Reserve decision is worth a line.
HSBC reported third quarter pretax profit of 9.63 billion dollars, up 32 percent, and a further buyback of up to 1 billion dollars, covered in full in today’s rates file. Bank earnings of that size, with credit costs contained, argue against the funding stress that the week’s other indicators are sometimes read as signalling.
In Asia, the Reserve Bank of India published money market operations and variable rate repo results for October 23 to 26 and an auction of dated government securities, the Bank of Japan published the September services producer price index, and the People’s Bank of China issued its Announcement No. 28 of 2026. Each is an operations document rather than a policy change, and they are recorded here so the official paper trail of the week is complete.