Consumer credit can drive households into financial difficulties. New measures are needed to prevent increasing debt problems.

The accessible summary sums up the solutions presented in the Bank of Finland’s stability assessment that can get a grip on households’ excessive debt levels.

The macroprudential toolkit needs to be replenished with borrower-based instruments that take into account loan applicants’ repayment ability and are able to curtail household indebtedness as a whole.

Finnish household debt is rapidly increasing also via consumer credit. Loans taken out from these new sources is difficult to monitor.