Mexico bank lending loses more steam in September

MEXICO CITY, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Growth in Mexican bank lending to individuals and companies lost steam in September, the central bank said on Friday, amid increasing concerns about defaults and fallout from the world credit debacle.

Bank lending to the private sector expanded 9.2 percent in September over the year-ago period after growing 11.3 percent in August, the central bank said in a statement.

Lending to consumers and businesses in Mexico expanded at explosive rates of around 50 percent a year in 2005 and 2006 as banks tended to a market starved of financial services after a crisis in the mid-1990s brought the industry to its knees. But in recent months, banks have become more cautious about handing out new credit cards and consumer loans, sectors increasingly affected by non-performing loans.

Banks' consumer credit, which includes credit cards, fell 27.6 percent in September over the year-ago period, the central bank said in a statement.

Some of the drop was due to Banamex, the Mexican unit of Citigroup (C.N), which recently moved credit card debt off its books and into a specialized lending company, Tarjetas Banamex.

Mexican banks' non-performing loans rose to 3.03 percent of their portfolios in September, largely because of consumer lending defaults, according to the National Banking and Securities Commision.

Non-performing loans at Mexican banks amounted to 2.82 percent at the end of June.

Since the end of last year, growth in bank lending to companies and consumers has steadily declined from an annual rate of 24 percent.

Credit from non-bank lenders rose 162.7 percent, reflecting the movement of Banamex's credit card portfolio to Tarjetas Banamex. (Reporting by Noel Randewich; Editing by Diane Craft)