We use monthly data on individual loans from the Italian Credit Register over the period from 1997 to 2019 and show … that bank credit expansions in the non-financial private sector are mostly explained by variations in the extensive margin … calculated either in credit ows or headcount of new borrowers. We then build on a ow approach to decompose changes in the net …

tightening of credit terms when firms experience shocks. …

. The banking system generates longer credit cycles on the time series compared to the business cycle, and also fosters … growth through lending, but deepens the recession during crises by decreasing credit supply. Macroprudential authority uses …